Fertility Treatment Children Healthy

The longest study of children born after in vitro fertilization and similar treatments is reassuring on intelligence scores and psychological health, but raises concerns that the rate of birth defects may be higher than normal, researchers said Wednesday.

The study, funded by the European Union, involved more than 1,500 children from Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Greece tracked up to age 5.

Other studies have hinted that children conceived through a technique that involves injecting the sperm directly into the egg may have a higher rate of malformations, but experts say neither those, nor the latest study, are sufficient to draw conclusions on birth defects.

However, they said the findings on intelligence and psychological health were convincing.

The researchers, who presented the results Wednesday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, assessed the physical development, family relationships and intellectual, psychological and social development of the children.

The children included 440 conceived through in vitro fertilization, or IVF, where the sperm and egg are placed in a dish together and fertilization takes place before the resulting embryo is implanted in the womb.

An additional 535 children were created by injecting sperm directly into an egg outside the woman’s body, a technique known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or ICSI.

The rest of the children in the study were conceived naturally.

Birth weight and height were similar among the three groups, said one of the study’s leaders, Dr. Christina Bergh, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.

The occurrence of illnesses was similar across the board, Bergh said.

Hospital admissions were higher for the IVF and ICSI children than for the others, and the ICSI children needed more surgery than those who were naturally conceived, she said.

There were no differences in intelligence, language skills, motor skills or behavior and temperamental difficulties. Parental stress was the same across the groups.

The rate of birth defects was measurably higher among children conceived by sperm injection compared with those naturally conceived: 6.2% versus 2.4%.

It is unclear whether the increased malformation rate among children born as a result of ICSI is due to the technique.