JANUARY 23, 2025
A study published in the European Heart Journal (EHJ) reveals that children conceived after assisted reproductive technology (ART) have a higher risk of congenital heart defects (CHD) compared to children born after spontaneous conception (SC).
This mega-study used data available on ART in the four countries of the North: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, over thirty years, between 1984 and 2015. It takes into account all children born alive, i.e., more than 7.7 million in total. In this group, 171,735 were conceived after ART.
The study establishes that the frequency of heart defects was approximately 36% higher in babies born after ART compared to children conceived naturally, i.e., an absolute risk of 1.84% of having a heart defect compared to 1.15%.
It is remarkable that the risk is similar regardless of the type of assisted reproduction: in vitro fertilization alone or with intracytoplasmic sperm injection; fresh or frozen embryos. However, this risk is higher for multiple births than for single births under assisted reproduction (2.47% versus 1.62%).
The authors therefore recommend the transfer of a single embryo per attempt at artificial reproduction. But it is well known that the "chances" of success are then reduced.
Professor Ulla-Britt Wennerholm, who led the study, said in a press release dated September 27, 2024 from the European Society of Cardiology: "The fact that the risk of heart defects is similar regardless of the type of assisted reproduction used may indicate that there is some common factor underlying infertility in parents and congenital heart disease in their babies."
Which raises a fundamental question. Without mentioning the immorality of medically assisted reproduction, the study raises an important question about the real benefit/risk of this technique. Is artificial reproduction a satisfactory solution to infertility?
More: https://fsspx.news/en/news/assisted-reproduction-increases-risk-heart-defects-50168
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