Health of IVF kids poorer than average up to age 4

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) seem to have poorer health than children conceived naturally. This is true even for single IVF births, Finnish researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers examined the health of 4,559 children up to 4 years of age who were born as a result of IVF between 1996 and 1999. More than 190,000 children conceived naturally during the same time period served as controls.

Although the health of most IVF children was "good," these children had more health problems than the other children, report Dr. Reija Klemetti and colleagues from Finland's National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health in Helsinki.

They found an "increased burden of disease associated with IVF," with poorer health around the time of birth (perinatal health), higher mortality rates, increased risk for hospitalization and cerebral palsy, and longer hospital episodes.

This burden depended in part on higher multiple births among IVF children (35.7 percent) compared with control children (2.2 percent).

However, the burden of disease resulted not only from the increased number of multiples but also from the poorer health of IVF singletons compared to control singletons. IVF singletons had poorer perinatal outcomes and more hospitalizations, but no increased risk for specific diseases was found.

For the most part, the health of IVF multiple births was comparable to that of naturally conceived multiple births.

"Additional studies," the authors conclude, "are needed to explain the poorer health of IVF singletons, as well as follow-up studies to examine the health of IVF children from 4 years onward."

The also suggest that "reducing the number of transferred embryos would improve the health of IVF children."

SOURCE: Pediatrics November 2006.