Health of IVF kids poor up to age 4

Children conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) seem to have poorer health than children conceived naturally. This is true even for single IVF births. The researchers from the National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health in Helsinki, Finland, examined the health of 4,559 children up to 4 years of age who were born as a result of IVF between 1996 and 1999. More than 190,000 children conceived naturally during the same time period served as controls. Although, the health of most IVF children was good, these children had more health problems than the other children. They found an increased burden of disease associated with IVF, with poorer health around the time of birth (perinatal health), higher mortality rates, increased risk for hospitalisation and cerebral palsy, and longer hospital episodes. This burden depended in part on higher multiple births among IVF children (36 percent) compared with control children (2 percent). However, the burden of disease resulted not only from the increased number of multiples but also from the poorer health of IVF singletons compared to control singletons. IVF singletons had poorer perinatal outcomes and more hospitalizations, but no increased risk for specific diseases was found. For the most part, the health of IVF multiple births were comparable to that of naturally conceived multiple births. However, additional studies are needed to explain the poorer health of IVF singletons, as well as follow-up studies to examine the health of IVF children from 4 years onward. They also suggest that reducing the number of transferred embryos would improve the health of IVF children.