CHILDREN BORN AFTER INFERTILITY TREATMENT

According to world literature, infertility treatment can negatively affect the health of children born after such therapy

Children from multifetal pregnancies

It has been proved that multifetal pregnancies are much more common after infertility treatment than in the general population. This, in turn, is the reason why premature labours and births with low-birth weight are more common in the "treated" population. Children born prematurely are at risk of diseases typically found in preterm infants. In case of in vitro fertilization, the percentage of twin pregnancies should not exceed 10%, and higher-order pregnancies (triple, quadruple) are regarded as a medical malpractice.

Developmental defects in children born after infertility treatment

It was also found that children born after infertility treatment are more likely to suffer from different congenital defects. However, the difference in their incidence is not great - it is merely several tenth percent. It refers both to the group of children born after assisted reproductive techniques (IVF, ICSI - an egg cell stays out of a woman's body for a while), and those after simple intrauterine insemination. It suggests that slightly higher incidence of defects is related to parents' diseases (infertility) rather than treatment itself.

Psychomotor development

There are reports that psychomotor development in children born after infertility treatment is different than in the general population. The difference is that such children develop slightly more slowly at the beginning of their extrauterine life. But in less than 6 months they catch up with their peers conceived naturally. Such situation may be partially caused by the greater number of premature labours after multifetal pregnancies, and it may affect the newborns from these pregnancies.

What is important is that the incidence of tumours and other severe diseases is not higher in children born after infertility treatment.