my personal edition > infertility > news


  E-Mail this DGNews to a colleague

DGNews

CDC Study Shows Assisted Reproductive Technology May Increase Risk of Certain Birth Defects

ATLANTA -- November 20, 2008 -- Infants conceived with Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) are 2 to 4 times more likely to have certain types of birth defects than children conceived naturally, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published in the journal Human Reproduction.

"Today, more than 1% of infants are conceived through ART and this number may continue to increase," said Jennita Reefhuis, PhD, CDC′s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, Georgia. "While the risk is low, 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 study shows that among pregnancies resulting in a single birth, ART was associated with twice the risk of some types of heart defects, more than twice the risk of cleft lip with or without cleft palate, and over 4 times the risk of certain gastrointestinal defects compared with babies conceived without fertility treatments.

Despite these findings, the absolute risk of any individual birth defect remains low. In the United States, cleft lip with or without palate affects approximately 1 in every 950 births; doubling the risk among infants conceived by ART would result in approximately 1 in every 425 infants being affected by cleft lip with or without palate.

The study examined multiple births separately from single births because ART increases the chance of a multiple birth. Children born as part of a multiple birth are more likely to have a birth defect regardless of use of ART. The study showed use of ART did not significantly increase the risk of birth defects among multiple births.

However, ART might contribute to the risk of major birth defects by directly increasing the risk of defects among single births. It may also have an indirect impact because ART increases the likelihood of having twins, which is a risk factor for many types of birth defects. Researchers believe this suggests the need for further studies to determine risk for ART in pregnancies with multiple births.

The study examined data from 281 births conceived with ART and 14,095 conceived without infertility treatments. The National Birth Defects Prevention Study is a population-based study that currently incorporates data from birth defects research centers in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah.

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

E-Mail this DGNews to a colleague

To print, use this version