IVF risks

Another question many potential IVF parents ask is, what are the risks to the health of my kids?  My IVF doctor was quick to reply to this question that there has been nothing proven to be related to the IVF process, and any potentially increased adverse consequences could be related to the fact that many IVF pregnancies are multiples (hence our stubborn refusal to implant more than one embryo) and/or that the IVF population (ie. the old, unhealthy, infertile parents) is more likely to produce unhealthy kids.  (Have I mentioned that getting old is a bitch?)

So I’ve looked around to see what I can find.  Like my doc said, I can’t find anything that demonstrates the IVF process is potentially harmful to the health of the resulting children…. But there are certainly a number of studies drawing concern.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2907231/ - listing a series of studies showing increased risks with IVF/ICSI; focuses on a study, in mice, that IVF babies are smaller, placentas larger, and embryo development delayed

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000386#pmed-1000386-t001 – has tons of interesting statistics to help a couple predict likelihood of success.  Another one relates to chance of a low birthweight baby, depending on factors like age of mom and cause of infertility.

http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/134/1/63.full - IVF has an impact on gene expression in mouse studies.  Unclear if this persists / matter, but the authors suggest there could be a “long lasting predisposition to disease”.  Grrreeeat.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15172847 - summary suggesting more data needed

http://www.medpagetoday.com/upload/2009/5/21/dep125v1.pdf - no clear difference between frozen embryo babies and fresh embryo babies.  Also notes again that “The risks [to the health of children born from IVF] identified to date do not seem to be associated with the techniques per se, but rather as being attributable to parental characteristics and from clinical policies of transferring more than one embryo at the time, causing highly increased proportions of multiple pregnancies and deliveries.”

While I think there is no doubt that IVF is not better for the health of the humans born from it, I also think all things being equal it’s still worth the risk, especially for singletons, and especially when you consider what great parents IVF parents are. :)