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Two Studies on Assisted Reproductive Technology Raise Some Possible but Rare Complications of This Treatment :

February 18, 2016

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is being used more and more for infertility issues—but at what risk(s)? This week, Reigstad et al. (REF) and Diop et al.

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is being used more and more for infertility issues—but at what risk(s)? This week, Reigstad et al. (10.1542/peds.2015-2061) and Diop et al. (10.1542/peds.2015-2007)share with us two studies pointing out some new associations on populations of women that use ART that are important to be made aware of. The first study by Reigstad et al. (10.1542/peds.2015-2061) looked at cancer risk in children conceived by ART when compared to children for whom ART was not used.

The study done in Norway used a national birth registry and cancer registry and looked at all children born between 1984 and 2011 relative to conception by ART and subsequent onset of cancer(s). The good news is that risk of overall cancer in the ART population was not elevated significantly but the risks more specifically of leukemia and Hodgkin lymphoma were. A commentary by oncologists Drs. Melissa Bondy and E. Susan Amirian (10.1542/peds.2015-4509) provides some useful perspective on the implications of the findings in this somewhat worrisome study.

A second study by Diop et al. (10.1542/peds.2015-2007) chose a different hypothesis –that of the need for early intervention enrollment being higher if ART were needed for conception. The authors studied a cohort of children born via ART (n= 6447), a second group that was subfertile but did not use ART (n= 5515), and a third comparison group of fertile mothers who conceived naturally (n=306, 3430. The results don’t bode well for the ART and the subfertile/non ART groups (27% and 20% higher odds of early intervention assessment than the fertile group). Does this mean that the risks of ART outweigh the benefits?

Not at all—but awareness of possible complications from use of this fertility method is certainly worth sharing with pregnant subfertile mothers who turn to ART to help them conceive. Both studies and the accompanying commentary are well worth reading and not reading these three articles given their findings and discussion would be inconceivable—but don’t take my word for this—read these articles for yourself and learn more.
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