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long term health of IVF Child
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Anonymous
| I'm considering IVF...but having these nagging worries about what long term consequences might be in store for people born via IVF. The oldest IVF babies are now in their 30's, so we don't know how their health will hold up in their 50's and beyond. Doctor seems to think the risk at worst will be small (say a 1.01 % chance of getting x disease instead of a 1% chance); husband thinks I'm worrying too much. Has anyone else dealt with these concerns? If so, how did you come to a decision? |
Anonymous
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I wondered about this as well. I came to terms with this by accepting that life is a gamble in so many ways.
My ivf baby is here. And I have no regrets. |
Anonymous
| You're not silly for worrying, I had the same concerns but my 8 year old twins via IVF are very healthy, and they were born quite premature, but luckily no long complications. |
Anonymous
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Think about it. An IVF baby is the product of a human egg, fertilized by a human sperm. It grows to an 8 cell embryo and then eventually (hopefully) implants in the uterine lining of a human women.
That is pretty much what happens with every child born, IVF or no. What long term health impacts are you thinking about? Genetic diseases? Same sperm and egg as non-IVF. Damage to embryo genetic material during time in-vitro? We'd know about that by now. Impacts due to mother's use of hormones? We'd probably know about that too. And, that is no different than IUI. I think maybe you are listening to too much right-wing, religious, anti-IVF propaganda. Medicine is offering you an opportunity to have a child. If you need the help, take it. |
Anonymous
Last time I checked, the Catholic Church wasn't giving "health of the child"reasons not to do IVF. I don't agree with their particular teachings on IVF, but how about we leave the nasty stuff out of this? I have had plenty of people who share my more liberal inclinations question what sort of mysterious issues IVF could possibly cause. |
Anonymous
| A healthy child who lives a long life is NEVER a guarantee, IVF or not. |
Anonymous
| I thought/worried about this too. But since the only way I could get pregnant was through IVF, I felt like I did not really have a choice (other than to adopt, which has its own risks). |
Anonymous
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Original poster here....I appreciate all of your responses. Several good points were made.
To the pp... unfortunately in my research I have found some religious publications that appear to be using scare tactics with headlines such as "IVF Babies: A ticking Time Bomb". I spotted - and dismissed- that information pretty quickly. I think there are other mainstream sites / publications that aren't as provocative but still somewhat more alarmist than evidence would warrant. So its really hard to study this issue, because there is so much garbage you have to sort through. |
Anonymous
nope never thought of it or considered it. |
Anonymous
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"What long term health impacts are you thinking about? Genetic diseases? Same sperm and egg as non-IVF."
Well, actually, ICSI is fairly new and, early IVF babies were natural cycle IVF, not the result of stimming. And there have been at least two large studies showing some evidence of increased genetic problems and birth defects with IVF babies, albeit 2% vs. 1% so still really small. So in my view (and I tried IVF but wasn't successful), there is a very good chance that there won't be long term health effects but it is still not 100% clear. |
Anonymous
| I don't know why you are considering IVF, but for me it was severe male factor. My doctor told me that studies she has reviewed indicate that children (especially male) born via IVF/ICSI have an increased chance of experiencing infertility themselves. I am still going through with it and taking the chance. When our child is old enough, we will explain to him or her that it may be difficult to conceive on their own. |
Anonymous
| OP here....my concerns are related to the "in vitro" part.... the fact that the sperm and egg (and embryo) start out in an unatural environment and whether that could alter the DNA in some subtle way that leads to health problems later in life. I think the conclusion I'm coming to....and the process of debating this issue on this blog has helped, becaue posters have helped pushed me out of my angst ridden mental loops ....is that if there are any latent effects from in vitro, they are probably going to be in the range of things that people commonly experience anyway...nothing from a scifi horror flick....and probably only experienced at slightly higher rates than in the general population. |
Anonymous
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This is an interesting article about the possibility of health risks due to IVF. From the article, it seems like the best way to reduce those risks is to only transfer one embryo, since the biggest risks come from being a twin. I write this as someone who tranferred two embryos in her 4th cycle (adter doing single embryo transfers for the first 3) and is now pregnant with twins...
http://www.slate.com/id/2109131/ |
Anonymous
| I think most of the genetic issues they see in children born from IVF have not to do with the IVF itself, but with the fact that the parents had something that was causing their infertility, that wouldn't have been passed on to children if IVF was not possible. |
Anonymous
| PP 9:35 I think it would depend on why you are doing IVF. I've gotten pregnant on my own 3 times. The first two times I exercised my right to choose. The third time was at almost 40 and we found out that the fetus had a fatal fetal defect. I'm now trying to get pregnant again with the help of IVF. I'm 41 and I believe that is the issue. I don't think that my child will have infertility problems just because they were an IVF baby. Although I do agree that it seems possible that some issues are passed along PCOS, MF issues, etc. |