Growth and metabolism disorders, cardiovascular problems, genetic pathologies, cancers… the Academy has studied the long-term health of children born by assisted medical procreation, there are 23,000 each year. “Overall, it shows that children conceived by in vitro fertilization can sometimes be affected by health problems”, but without much difference with “children conceived naturally”. The Academy specifies that “the published results are not all consistent” and that “many uncertainties remain”.
Each year, in France, 23,000 children are born thanks to care in a course of medically assisted procreation (PMA), i.e. 3.6% of births. As they grow up, are these babies more exposed than others to a health problem? This is the meaning of a study published by the Academy of Medicine, which studies the health, in the medium and long term, of children conceived by in vitro fertilization “(IVF).
Growth and metabolism disorders, cardiovascular problems, genetic pathologies, cancers, neurodevelopment and fertility disorders… “many studies have been carried out focusing on the occurrence of different health alterations”, specifies the Academy.
If “the results are not all consistent”, “there is a risk that children conceived by IVF will often be sicker than the others”, but “it is probably moderate”.
Procedures “suspected of being the cause of observed disorders”
“The alterations observed in children are not necessarily attributable to IVF insofar as infertile couples may be more at risk of transmitting to their children factors responsible for health disturbances. For example, some boys born as a result of ‘an IVF with micro-injection of sperm into the oocyte, done to compensate for male infertility of genetic origin, risk being sterile like their father’, underlines the report.
It also points to the supposed effects of the “procedures used to perform IVF, whether “hormonal ovarian stimulation treatments”, “embryo culture conditions” or “embryo freezing”, “often suspected of being cause of the observed disturbances.
The Academy invites to continue “comparative studies on better characterized populations, in particular at more advanced ages of life”, knowing that “many uncertainties remain”.
“Give clear information to parents”
On cancer for example: “All the results of the studies carried out so far suggest that there is probably no link between the occurrence of cancer in children and the fact that it has been designed by IVF. To be sure, however, further research is needed, especially in older children and those resulting from frozen embryo transfer”.
On neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders: “Three studies, including a meta-analysis, including between 1 and 8 million children and adolescents, one reported an absence of link between birth following ART and the occurrence of autism spectrum disorders, and for the other two an increase in autism spectrum disorders following conception by ART”. But “the authors temper their conclusions for various methodological reasons”.
The Academy is also in favor of giving “clear, objective and precise information to people having recourse to IVF so that the most appropriate measures possible can be taken in the event of the appearance of health problems in their children”. .