IVF babies may have a greater risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and stiffer arteries than those conceived naturally, experts claim
KIDS born after intensive IVF treatment could go on to suffer heart problems, scientists will claim this week.
Youngsters may have a greater risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and stiffer arteries than those conceived naturally— leading to heart attacks and strokes in later life.
Fertility experts will say high doses of powerful drugs used to stimulate egg production are to blame. The annual conference of the International Society for Milder Approaches to Assisted Reproduction (ISMAAR) will be held in London this week.
The society’s president Professor Geeta Nargund warned fertility clinics to heed the warning. A ‘high stimulation’ approach is thought to be responsible for many of Britain’s 66,000 IVF children.
But US IVF pioneer Dr Sherman Silber told The Mail on Sunday: “Hyper-stimulation is crazy, because you end up getting a lot of poor-quality eggs.” The process involves giving women high doses of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) to encourage their ovaries to release lots of eggs rather than just one, but it could lead to poor quality eggs being fertilised.
One Swiss study compared heart and blood vessel health in 65 pre-school children born from fertility treatment and 57 conceived naturally.t found more IVF kids had problems including stiffer blood vessels and thickening of the arteries pumping blood to the head and neck.
Professor Anja Pinborg, of Copenhagen University, said it was too early to say how the children would be affected in later life.
A separate study by Dr Silber will show that there were slightly poorer health outcomes in children where more than 18 eggs were retrieved in one go.
He claims it takes more than 20 eggs from highly stimulated ovaries on average to end up with a baby, compared with only four eggs from unstimulated ovaries.
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