Projecting the potential impact of the Cap-Score™ on Clinical Pregnancy, Live Births, and Medical Costs in Couples with Unexplained Infertility.

Authors

Joseph B Babigumira
Fady I Sharara, George Washington University
Louis P Garrison

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

9-23-2017

Journal

Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics

Volume

35

Issue

1

Inclusive Pages

99-106

DOI

10.1007/s10815-017-1021-4

Abstract

Purpose

The Cap-Score™ was developed to assess the capacitation status of men, thereby enabling personalized management of unexplained infertility by choosing timed intrauterine insemination (IUI), versus immediate in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in individuals with a low Cap-Score™. The objective of this study was to estimate the differences in outcomes and costs comparing the use of the Cap-Score™ with timed IUI (CS-TI) and the standard of care (SOC), which was assumed to be three IUI cycles followed by three IVF-ICSI cycles.

Methods

We developed and parameterized a decision-analytic model of management of unexplained infertility for women based on data from the published literature. We calculated the clinical pregnancy rates, live birth rates, and medical costs comparing CS-TI and SOC. We used Monte Carlo simulation to quantify uncertainty in projected estimates and performed univariate sensitivity analysis.

Results

Compared to SOC, CS-TI was projected to increase the pregnancy rate by 1–26%, marginally reduce live birth rates by 1–3% in couples with women below 40 years, increase live birth rates by 3–7% in couples with women over 40 years, reduce mean medical costs by $4000–$19,200, reduce IUI costs by $600–$1370, and reduce IVF costs by $3400–$17,800, depending on the woman’s age.

Conclusion

The Cap-Score™ is a potentially valuable clinical tool for management of unexplained infertility because it is projected to improve clinical pregnancy rates, save money, and, depending on the price of the test, increase access to treatment for infertility.

Comments

Reproduced with permission of Springer International.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

APA Citation

Babigumira, J., Sharara, F., & Garrison, L. (2017). Projecting the potential impact of the Cap-Score™ on Clinical Pregnancy, Live Births, and Medical Costs in Couples with Unexplained Infertility.. Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 35 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10815-017-1021-4

Peer Reviewed

1

Open Access

1