ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Comparing pregnancy outcomes in a population with natural versus surgical reduction of twin pregnancies: a retrospective cohort study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Lanzhou University First Hospital, Lanzhou, China
- 2Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
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Objective: To compare the cycle of initial twin pregnancy with VTS, the cycle of initial twin pregnancy after surgical reduction, and the live birth outcome of initial singleton pregnancy. To provide clinical evidence for confirming that VTS and surgical reduction may affect obstetric and perinatal outcomes. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on patients diagnosed with MFPR and VTS at the Reproductive Medicine Hospital of the First Hospital of Lanzhou University from January 2017 to December 2021. Among them, 4974 cases were singleton delivery, including 271 cases of twin loss and 84 cases of multiple pregnancy reduction, and 1441 cases of IVF/ICSI singleton pregnancy in the control group. A comparison was made on the clinical characteristics and pregnancy outcomes of the three groups. Results: The MFPR group demonstrated significantly higher rates of miscarriage, preterm birth, and low birth weight compared to both the VTS and control groups (P<0.05).In contrast, the VTS group showed comparable gestational age and birth weight to the control group, with an even lower miscarriage rate.Within the MFPR cohort, dichorionic triamniotic (DCT) pregnancies had a higher risk of miscarriage than trichorionic triamniotic (TCT) pregnancies (P<0.05).ROC analysis indicated that serum β-hCG levels on day 14 post-transfer had value in distinguishing VTS from initial singletons (AUC=0.75), with a cutoff of 837 mIU/ml. Conclusions: 1. The VTS population may have better pregnancy outcomes than the MFPR population and the β-hCG level has certain clinical application value. At the same time, the MFPR in DCT pregnancy is more challenging than that in TCT pregnancy.
Keywords: Spontaneous reduction, twin disappearance syndrome, Pregnancy Outcome, Retrospective cohort study, in vitro fertilization
Received: 01 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jing, Gao, Gu, Wan, He, Ma and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haofei Shen
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