Assisted reproductive technology success rates for women with inflammatory bowel disease appear similar to those of the general population, except in two groups of patients, say the Australian authors of a systematic review.

Live birth rates are lower following surgery for Crohn’s disease and after failed ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA), they report.

Dr Robyn Laube and colleagues from Sydney’s Macquarie University reviewed 11 studies covering more than 30,000 women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and 156,000 controls.

They performed a meta-analysis on four of the studies — including 250 women with Crohn’s disease, 522 with ulcerative colitis and 53,073 controls — reporting their findings in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.