Fertility Techniques - Overcoming Infertility

Birth defects tied to fertility techniques'

Infants conceived with techniques commonly used in fertility clinics are two to four times more likely to have certain birth defects than are infants conceived naturally, a new study has found.

 The findings applied to single births only, not to twins or other multiples. The defects included heart problems, cleft lip, cleft palate and abnormalities in the esophagus or rectum. But those conditions are rare to begin with, generally occurring no more than once in 700 births, so the overall risk was still low, even after the fertility treatments. Cleft lip, for instance, typically occurs in 1 in 950 births in the United States, and the study found that the risk about doubled, to approximately 1 in 425, among infants conceived with the fertility treatments.
The procedures that increased the risk were so-called assisted reproductive techniques, like in vitro fertilization, which require doctors and technicians to work with eggs and sperm outside the body. The study did not include women who only took fertility drugs and did not have procedures performed. "I think it is important for couples to consider the fact that there may be a risk for birth defects," said Jennita Reefhuis, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the first author of the study. But Reefhuis (pronounced REEF-house) also said that although her study linked fertility procedures to birth defects, it did not prove the connection or explain it. If the connection is real, it is not known whether the procedures increase the risk for birth defects, or whether infertility itself raises the risk.
Fertility doctors, she said, "may not believe my findings." James Grifo, director of the fertility clinic at New York University Medical Center, said, "The good news is that the risk is low." Grifo said more research was needed to test the findings, because the study included only 281 women who had fertility procedures. He said that if the association with birth defects was real, the underlying cause was more likely related to the patients' infertility than to the treatments. Twins and other multiple births have a higher risk of birth defects than single births and whether infertility treatment adds to that risk is unknown.
Alan Fleischman, vice-president and medical director of the March of Dimes, said: "I think it's an important study. It's confirmatory of the direction we have been concerned about, an increase in some structural birth defects in babies born with assisted reproductive techniques compared to those born without such. And yet the numbers are still small, the risks are low."
Women considering fertility treatment should be informed that there might be a risk of birth defects, Fleischman said, but they need not be "overly concerned". NYT NEWS SERVICE

INFORMED CHOICE: Women considering fertility treatment should be informed that there might be a risk of birth defects, experts said

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