Health Issue: IVF doubles birth...

IVF Doubles

birth-defect risk

        Babies conceived through fertility treatments are at sharply increased risk of serious congenital malformations, according to a study. Research into the health of 15,162 babies born after assisted conceptions found that 4.24% had serious malformations, roughly double the rate for all children. The study, carried out in France, is the largest of its kind.

        Dr Geraldine Viot, a clinical geneticist at the Maternite Port-Royal Hospital, Paris, says in the abstract: "A major congenital malformation was found in 4.24% of children. This higher rate was partly due to an excess of heart diseases and malformations in the urogenital system." Viot also found a greater rate of minor malformations, with 365 children suffering from angiomas, five times higher than the overall rate. There was an increase in rare  genetic disorders, which affected J 10 of the 15,162 children. Six had Beck with- Wiedemann syndrome, when only one would normally be expected in such a sample size. A study found that the number of babies born through ART rose to 246,000 annually in 2002 from 219,000 in 2000.