|
 The authors caution that the findings are too preliminary to deter
women from trying to conceive this way.
They say the increased risk of complications may be at least partly
due to older maternal age and other health factors that lead women
to try assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the first place.
The study team couldn’t tell what was behind the increased risk of
birth defects in babies conceived using ART, said Dr. Sheree Boulet,
a health scientist in the division of reproductive health at the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who led the
research.
“That said, our manuscript suggests that factors related to
underlying subfertility – which is what leads many couples to
explore ART services – could increase the risk of birth defects,”
Boulet added by email.
Boulet and colleagues reviewed data on more than 4.6 million babies
born in Florida, Massachusetts and Michigan from 2000 to 2010.
About 1.4 percent of these babies, or roughly 65,000, were conceived
using reproductive technology, according to a report in JAMA
Pediatrics.
Overall, for every 10,000 babies, almost 59 of those conceived using
ART had at least one non-genetic birth defect, compared with about
48 of those conceived the old fashioned way.
Most of the women who didn’t use ART were under 30, while the
majority of the women who conceived using reproductive technology
were at least 35 years old.
Even after researchers adjusted for mother’s age and other health
characteristics, infants born via ART were 28 percent more likely to
have these birth defects than babies conceived without reproductive
technology.
Among babies born after an ART process known as fresh embryo
transfer – when a woman is stimulated with fertility medications and
has eggs retrieved and embryos implanted all within the same
reproductive cycle – the risk of birth defects was 53 percent
greater with women who had ovulation disorders.
[to top of second column] |
For the subset of women who underwent a newer ART process known as
assisted hatching – when scientists help the embryo emerge from a
layer of proteins so it can better attach to the uterus – the risk
of birth defects was 55 percent higher.
One limitation of the study is that it lacked data on birth defects
in pregnancies that didn’t result in a live-born child, which means
it may have underestimated the prevalence of birth defects, the
authors note. It’s also possible that ART-conceived babies are
monitored more closely, resulting in a higher detection rate for
birth defects among these infants.
“Even though the study found differences in risk of birth defects,
it should be remembered that overall prevalence of these defects is
low,” said Judy Stern, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and
pathology at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Lebanon, New
Hampshire.
“The vast majority of babies born from ART were normal,” Stern, who
wasn’t involved in the study, added by email.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1YbFkRQ JAMA Pediatrics, online April 4, 2016.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
