Birth Defects Linked with Assisted Reproduction

Judith Graham at the Chicago Tribune reports :

Babies born to couples who rely on medical technology to become pregnant have much higher rates of certain birth defects, according to a study published online Monday in the journal [ Obstetrics & Gynecology ].

The report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found these infants have twice as many heart defects and cleft lips and nearly four times as many gastrointestinal defects as those conceived without technological interventions . . . .

Independent experts noted the study establishes an association, not a causal connection, between birth defects and two procedures: in vitro fertilization and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection . . . .

The findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that birth defects are linked with the increasingly common medical technologies that help infertile couples. In 2005, the latest year for which data are available, 52,000 babies were born in the U.S. through assisted reproduction, more than double the number a decade before.

A study from Western Australia published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002 showed that 8.6 percent of babies conceived through ICSI and 9 percent of those conceived through IVF had a major birth defect by the age of one, compared with 4.2 percent of infants conceived the old-fashioned way.