If you’re interested in IVF or other fertility treatments but live where wildfire smoke is damaging the air quality, you may want to delay your treatments until you have consistently better air at your location. That’s because an OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) study has shown that unhealthy air quality can have an effect on fertility treatments and their success rates. The study also hypothesized that this problem will worsen as climate change causes an increase in wildfires throughout the West.

In the study, 69 patients were examined and tracked during their IVF treatment in 2020, when wildfires created 10 days of extremely unhealthy air in Southern Oregon. During that time, the area had one of the worst air quality scores in the world. When IVF patients were exposed to wildfire smoke, though, they produced fewer blastocysts. These are the clusters of 150 to 200 cells that form during the development of an embryo.

The blastocysts can be placed into the uterus for implantation or frozen for future use, and having more of them can make IVF easier. Patients who didn’t have wildfire smoke exposure continued to make normal amounts of blastocysts, which helped increase the success of their IVF treatments. While most of the patients who were exposed to the smoke still ended up with pregnancies, it may be advisable for healthcare providers to wait with high-risk patients if the air quality is poor.

Filtration at IVF clinics and other medical locations is vital and can help reduce the chances of problems for anyone interested in IVF treatment. During a normal fire season, it might not be necessary to wait until the air improves. For particularly bad fire seasons, though, or for high-risk patients, taking a break from IVF and waiting until the air quality is better is the recommendation of the researchers who conducted the study.

The overarching goal is to make it easier for IVF to work properly and to reduce the rounds of IVF that a woman needs to go through before creating a successful pregnancy. Taking extra precautions when air quality is particularly bad is one of the ways to help with that.

To learn about how The Surrogacy Law Center helps protect individuals and couples who want to realize their dreams of becoming parents, contact us today!