Birth defect risk raised by in vitro fertilization
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Babies conceived using in vitro fertilization are two to four times as likely to have certain birth defects than those conceived naturally, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
In vitro babies are two to three times as likely to be born with cardiac defects involving a hole in the heart, according to researchers led by epidemiologist Jennita Reefhuis of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These babies also are also twice as likely to be born with a cleft lip and four times as likely to be born with some gastrointestinal defects, the researchers wrote in the journal Human Reproduction.
Even with the increased risk, however, the defects remain rare in these babies and the cause of the increased risk remained unclear, the researchers said.
In vitro fertilization involves placing egg and sperm cells in a laboratory dish, then transferring the resulting embryo into a woman’s uterus.
“Any couple who is considering these treatments wants to be aware of all the pros and cons of the treatment,” Reefhuis said in a telephone interview.
“And, so far, the main cons that have been known have been the increased risk of having twins and other higher multiples, which has its own share of problems. I think it’s important for couples to be aware that there may be some increased risk for birth defects as well.”
Many infertile couples turn to in vitro fertilization and about 50,000 such infants are born each year in the United States — a number that has roughly doubled over the past decade. About 1 percent of U.S. babies are conceived using the technique, the researchers said.
The study involved 281 babies conceived using in vitro fertilization, or a less-common technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and 14,095 babies conceived without infertility treatments.
The babies were single births, not twins, triplets or other multiple births. Babies born as part of any multiple birth already are at higher risk for birth defects. The researchers determined that using in vitro fertilization did not significantly increase the chances of birth defects among the multiple-birth children.
The study did not look at babies born to women who took ovulation-stimulating drugs or used artificial insemination.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related Posts:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who want to have a vasectomy reversed may soon be able to opt for a “mini-incision, no-scalpel” operation, according to a group of surgeons who have performed a number of successful vasectomy reversals using this approach. In vasectomy, the tube that carries sperm from the testes to the penis, the
Full Post: Mini-incision no-scalpel vasectomy reversal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan woman has given birth to healthy twins using the 13-year-old frozen sperm of a former testicular cancer patient, local media said on Saturday, setting a record for the island. The twin boys were born using the sperm taken from a man surnamed Chen, then 23, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer
Full Post: Woman has twins from cancer survivor’s 13-year-old sperm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A test performed in early pregnancy to check for genetic defects such as Down’s syndrome in the fetus appears to be linked to increased chances that the baby will be born with a birthmark, or “infantile hemangioma,” researchers report. Chorionic villus sampling or CVS involves using a needle to collect samples
Full Post: Prenatal test may raise birthmark risk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON (Reuters) - Babies born by Caesarean section are more likely to develop asthma than children delivered naturally, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday. There has been conflicting evidence on the link between asthma and C-sections but the researchers said the number of children involved in their study and a long monitoring period strengthened their results. The findings
Full Post: Researchers link C-section babies to asthma risk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obese men are more than three times as likely to have low sperm counts compared with their normal-weight peers, a study out this month in the journal Fertility and Sterility shows. The heaviest men were also at triple the risk of having a low count of progressively motile sperm — sperm
Full Post: Obese men have worse sperm quality than leaner men