ABSTRACT

In France, as in many other developed countries, ovulation induction and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have resulted in an increase in multiple births after human menopausal gonadotropin, follicle stimulating hormone and clomiphene citrate became available in 1967, and the first child conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF) was born in 1982. At present, it is possible to assess the effect of ART in France because all the clinics performing it have to be authorized by the Ministry of Health, according to French law, and because those clinics must provide an annual report to the health authorities describing procedures and births. This includes numbers of IVF, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and artificial insemination with spouse or donor semen procedures. At the same time, it is difficult to mea-sure the effects of ovulation induction outside ART, because there is no national reporting of these treat-ments and data on pregnancy initiation (including infertility treatments) are not collected routinely for all French births1.