30-May-05 IVF Children’s Health

The HFEA is reported to be moving to establishing a register of all fertility procedures carried out in UK clinics.

In particular it hopes to maintain records of techniques used, their outcomes and follow-up data on the physical and developmental health of the children born. There are also some murmurings from the USA along similar lines. Currently privacy legislation would prevent this happening.

The initiative was sparked by some research presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine in 2004.  The report looked at results of over 169 studies and showed that children born of ART are no more likely to have major health problems than naturally conceived children.

There was no evidence that IVF increases risk of birth defects, cancer or problems in psychological or emotional development. It was however found that IVF might have  a “negative impact” during birth and possible increased risk of some rare genetic conditions.

Source: Bionews

Click here for more news items