High Risk of Birth Complications after Assisted Conception

Risk of birth complications is higher in babies conceived through assisted reproductive therapies, claims a new finding.

The study conducted by the University of Adelaide researchers claims that the risk of birth problems such as premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight and neonatal death is two times higher in babies conceived through assisted reproductive therapies compared to babies who are conceived naturally.

The researchers took into account adverse birth events in all available forms of assisted reproductive treatments including in-vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), ovulation induction, and cryopreservation of embryos.

This comprehensive study conducted in collaboration with the researchers at the University of Robinson Institute evaluated the outcome of over 300,000 births in South Australia. They noticed that over a 17 year period, there were more than 4,300 babies who were conceived by assisted reproduction.

"Compared with spontaneous conceptions in couples with no record of infertility, singleton babies from assisted conception were almost twice as likely to be stillborn, more than twice as likely to be preterm, almost three times as likely to have very low birth weight, and twice as likely to die within the first 28 days of birth," study leader, Professor Michael Davies, University of Adelaide's Robinson Institute said in a statement. "These outcomes varied depending on the type of assisted conception used. Very low and low birth weight, very preterm and preterm birth, and neonatal death were markedly more common in births from IVF and, to a lesser degree, in births from ICSI."

He said that the adverse outcomes linked with ICSI were removed with the use of frozen embryos but this was not done for IVF. Frozen embryos were, however, linked with elevated risk of macrosomia also called the bog baby syndrome in the IVF and ICSI babies.

 According to Professor Davies, further studies are required to be done on those who have had comprehensive perinatal disadvantage. Also the novel treatments and technology used should be taken into account.  This is the first study that compares pregnancies in women who were diagnosed with infertility, but never got any treatment.

"Women in this study who conceived without the help of invasive reproductive therapies "were nine times more likely to have very low birth weight, seven times more likely to be very preterm, and almost seven times more likely to die within the first 28 days of birth. This may be due to the underlying medical conditions related to their infertility, or the use of fertility medications or therapies that are not recorded," Professor Davies says.

This study was documented in the journal PLOS One.