Introduction
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus Disease
2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on March 11, 2020 and alerted all governments
to prepare emergency plans for COVID-19. After this important notice,
almost all health societies published their recommendations to guide
patients and clinicians in how to behave during the pandemic. On March
17, 2020 the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)
recommended that the all assisted reproductive technology (ART)
treatments and non-urgent diagnostic procedures should be postponed
except for some cases which are currently “in-cycle” or who require
urgent stimulation and cryopreservation, because of the unknown effect
of COVID-19 on fertility, pregnancy, and fetus [1]. The European
Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) suggested similar
recommendations to the ASRM on March 19, 2020 [2]. In Turkey, the
first case was detected and declared on the March 10, 2020. Due to these
societies’ recommendations and being a part of the pandemic, many
fertility centers in Turkey did not start any type of new ART treatment.
The updated version of the recommendations for ART has been published
since March 2020. The latest version of ESHRE’s guidelines recommended
to restart ART under some rules and conditions [2]. Although the
advice to return to normal daily practice has been offered [3], the
risk of infection during the delivery of reproductive care; the
possibility of COVID-19 contamination, and the effect of COVID-19 on the
fetus and neonate are still unclear.
Many predisposing factors have been described for COVID-19. According to
knowledge, there are no reports about whether or not ART is a
predisposing or prognostic factor for COVID-19. In this report, we
investigate the association between ART and COVID-19.