Curriculum in CardiologyManaging subfertility in patients with heart disease: What are the choices?

More women with heart disease are reaching reproductive age and will want to embark upon pregnancy. Furthermore, many of these women are delaying pregnancy until later in life when they may be exposed to a greater number of complications from their heart disease. A relatively high proportion of these women will pursue fertility treatment to achieve a pregnancy; consequently, the management of subfertile couples where the woman (or man) has heart disease is of growing importance. In this review, we discuss how fertility investigations and treatment can impact a women with heart disease and how some of the potential complications can be minimized or avoided. We also consider surrogacy, which is an important option when pregnancy is contraindicated.