The risk of being born with a major heart defect is 36% higher in babies who were conceived through assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to the results of a very large study published in European Heart Journal.
The researchers say the discovery is important because congenital heart defects are the most common form of birth defects, and some of them are associated with life-threatening complications.
show that, in fact, the increased risk is particularly associated with multiple births, which are more common in assisted reproduction.
The study was led by Professor Ulla-Britt Wennerholm from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
“Previous research shows that there are increased risks for children conceived with the help of assisted reproductive technology. These include preterm birth and low birth weight. We wanted to investigate whether it was higher for children born through assisted reproduction.”
The risk of being born with a major heart defect is 36% higher
The research included all children born alive in Denmark between 1994 and 2014, all children born in Finland between 1990 and 2014, those born in Norway between 1984 and 2015 and those born in Sweden between 1987 and 2015; more than 7.7 million in total, writes .
The researchers compared data on children born through assisted reproduction, including IVF, intracytoplasmic injection (ICSI) and embryo freezing, with data on children conceived naturally.
They assessed whether each group had been diagnosed with a major heart defect or a severe heart defect either in utero or during the first year of life.
The risk was higher for multiple births
They took into account other factors that may increase congenital, such as the year the child was born, the country, the mother’s age at birth, whether the mother smoked during pregnancy, or whether the mother had diabetes or heart defects.
It showed that heart defects were about 36% more common in children born after assisted reproduction compared to children conceived without such treatment (absolute risk 1.84% versus 1.15%).
This risk was similar regardless of the type of assisted reproduction used (IVF or ICSI, fresh or frozen embryos). However, the risk was higher for multiple births following assisted reproduction compared to singleton births following assisted reproduction (2.47% versus 1.62%).
