Assisted Reproduction May Increase Risk of Birth Defects

Advances in medical science now allow limbs to be reattached, organs to be replaced, and babies to be born to women with fertility issues who had previously been unable to conceive. These advances prolong and provide life, but at times there is a cost to these medical miracles. One such cost is that infants conceived through the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) are at two to four times greater risk of being born with certain birth defects when compared to babies who are conceived naturally.
According to a report from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children conceived through ART have a greater likelihood of having heart wall defects, gastrointestinal defects and a condition known as cleft lip. ART refers to any procedure involving the surgical removal of eggs from a woman`s womb followed by combining the eggs with sperm in a lab, and then returning them to the woman`s body or donating them to another woman.

The study centered on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and the effects were observed solely in single births. This could be due the fact that high risks for birth defects are already associated with multiple births, according to the researchers led by Jennita Reefhuis, Ph.D., of the CDC`s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. The findings of the CDC study were recently published in the advance online edition of Human Reproduction.

The use of ART is becoming more and more common. In a news release, Reefhuis stated, “Today, more than 1% of infants are conceived through ART and this number may continue to increase.” Reefhuis noted that the chances of birth defects for babies conceived through the use of ART are low yet “it is still important for parents who are considering using ART to think about all of the potential risks and benefits of this technology.” The CDC is not making any recommendations about the use of ART.

According to the CDC, the use of ART in the United States began in 1981 and the number of infants conceived through ART doubled from 1996 through 2004. About 12 percent of U.S. women between the ages of 15 and 44 reported using infertility services in 2002. In 2005, over 134,000 ART procedures were performed in the United States that resulted in about 52,000 births.

During the study, the researchers evaluated data from the mothers of babies born on or after Oct. 1, 1997, and on or before Dec. 31, 2003. About 13,500 of the babies were born with birth defects and just over 5,000 of the babies were born without birth defects. Mothers of the infants were interviewed by telephone between six months and two years after the date of delivery. The infants were born throughout 10 states including Arkansas, California, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Utah, and Texas.

Of the babies who were conceived through ART, 2.4 percent had birth defects while only about 1percent had no birth defects, according to interviews with the mothers. Among the ART babies, Septal heart defects were found to be twice as common, Cleft lip and/or cleft palate was found to be 2.4 times as common, Esophageal atresia (birth defect of the esophagus) was found to be 4.5 times more common and Anorectal atresia (birth defect in the anal/rectal area) was 3.7 times more common than in normally conceived children.

It must be noted that the study does not prove that ART actually causes the birth defects. The authors of the study report acknowledged this by stating, “Sub-fertile women might have a higher risk of having a child with a birth defect regardless of whether infertility treatments are used.” Additional research will be necessary to determine whether or not ART has an impact on birth defect risk.