Inequity in Fertility Treatment for Patients that Speak a Language Other than English: A Retrospective Cohort Study

To assess fertility treatment outcomes according to primary language spoken in patients undergoing fertility treatment in an Australian setting.

This retrospective cohort study examined female patients who received fertility treatment through a public hospital fertility service between September 2020 and May 2023. The primary outcome was clinical pregnancy rate following embryo transfer for patients who spoke English and patients who primarily spoke a language other than English. Poisson regression was used to estimate the association between language spoken and clinical pregnancy rate. Secondary outcomes included rate of other pregnancy outcomes following embryo transfer, number of fertility treatments performed, embryo quality, IVF cancellation rate, discontinuation rate, and time from first fertility appointment to treatment commencement.

Of the 916 patients who accessed fertility treatment during the study period, 112 patients (12.23%) primarily spoke a language other than English. There were no significant differences in clinical pregnancy rate following embryo transfer (IRR 0.92, 95% CI 0.60–1.36), or rates of biochemical pregnancy, miscarriage, or negative pregnancy. However, patients who spoke a language other than English received significantly fewer IVF cycles (1.29 ± 0.61 vs 1.63 ± 1.16 cycles, p = 0.006), greater all-cause IVF cancellation rate (41.33% vs 28.33%, p = 0.048), and longer median time from first appointment to first treatment of any type (341 vs 234.5 days, p < 0.001).

Inequity in all-cause IVF cancellation rate, mean number of IVF cycles, and duration from first fertility appointment to treatment commencement were observed for patients who spoke a language other than English.