ObjectiveTo systematically review the effects of assisted reproductive technology in single pregnancy on the incidence of gestational diabetes.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP and CBM databases were electronically searched to collect cohort studies on the correlation between assisted reproductive technology (ART) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) incidence in single pregnancy from inception to June 2019. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed risk of bias of included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed by using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsA total of 16 cohort studies involving 2 017 573 cases of single pregnancy were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that compared with the natural pregnancy group, the incidence of GDM was higher in the ART group (RR=1.54, 95%CI 1.30 to 1.83, P<0.000 01). In East Asia and Non-East Asia, the incidence of GDM in the ART group was higher than that in the natural pregnancy group (East Asia: RR=1.55, 95%CI 1.26 to 1.92, P<0.000 01; Non-East Asia: RR=1.49, 95%CI 1.18 to 1.89. P<0.000 1).ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that the incidence of GDM may increase in single pregnancy with ART compared with natural pregnancy. Due to limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high quality studies are required to verify above conclusions.