Test-tube babies develop normally

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 05 Jul 2003 - 0:00 PDT

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Children born through fertility techniques that have been used to create 1.4 million babies develop like youngsters conceived naturally, scientists said on Wednesday.

The largest and longest-running study comparing children conceived naturally and through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) showed no differences in intelligence, language and behavior at age 5.

But children born through ICSI, in which a single sperm is injected in an egg, had a higher rate of urological and kidney abnormalities.

'We did see an increase in the malformation rate,' Professor Christina Bergh, of the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden, told a fertility conference.

But she said more research is needed to explain why the rate was 6.2 percent in ICSI children, 4.1 percent in IVF babies and 2.4 percent in the other children.

'Overall, the results are reassuring and lay to rest the fears that have been expressed about the health and welfare of children conceived through IVF and ICSI,' she said.

The study, which compared 541 ICSI and 440 IVF children with 542 other children, showed no difference in weight and height at 5 years.

Verbal and motor performance and IQ scores were also similar between the two groups, although girls in all the groups scored higher. There were also no differences in behavioral problems.

In a separate report presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting, researchers said 60 percent of ICSI and IVF treatments are performed in Europe.

Denmark, Finland and Slovenia performed the most treatments per million people, while Switzerland and Britain are at the bottom the chart, according to the research from 21 countries.

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