ivf-infertility.com | IVF pregnancy outcomes

More than 3 million babies have been born by ART methods since the birth of the first IVF baby 28 years ago. As with all normally conceived pregnancies, complications may occur following IVF treatment. The table below summarizes the overall outcome of IVF pregnancies compared to natural conception.

	IVF pregnancy	Natural conception	Comments
Miscarriage	14-30%	15-20%	Slight increase, due to older age.
Ectopic pregnancy	1-11%	0.2-1.4%	Increase due to many factors.
Preterm delivery	24-30%	6-7%	Four-fold increase.
Small birth weight	27-32%	5-7%	Five-fold increase.
Stillbirth rate	1.2%	0.6%	Two-fold increase.
Perinatal death	2.7%	1.0%	Two-fold increase.
Congenital abnormalities	0.8-5.4%	0.8-4.5%	No significant increase.
Caesarean section	33-58%	10-25%	Increase mainly because of multiple pregnancy and woman's age.
Multiple pregnancy
twins	24-31%	1.2-4.5%	Increase due to higher number of embryos transferred.
triplets	0.5-5.2%	0.012%
quadruplets	0.5%	0.0001%

Slightly more male infants are born after IVF. The transfer of blastocyst- stage embryos may further increase this shift in the sex ratio. It is possible that male embryos develop faster in culture.

Outcome of children born following IVF treatment

Follow-up of children born as a result of IVF, ICSI and other forms of assisted conception is needed to study issues such as genetic risk, congenital malformation, psychological development, educational development, fertility, and risk of cancer. Current data demonstrated no significant differences in the incidence of congenital and chromosomal abnormalities in children conceived after IVF compared to children conceived naturally. Furthermore, children appear to develop normally both from fresh and frozen embryo transfer.

The confidentiality affected by Human Fertilization and Embryology Act in the United Kingdom to the parents and children resulted from ART has meant that follow up of these children has not been possible.

References

Beral V, Doyle P. MRC Working Party on Children Conceived by In Vitro Fertilization: births in Great Britain resulting from assisted conception. 1978-1987. BMJ 1990; 300

Bergh T, Ericson A, Hillensjo T, Nygren K-G, Wennerholm U-B. Delivery and children born after in-vitro fertilization in Sweden 1982-95. The Lancet 1999. 354

Rizk B. The outcome of assisted reproductive technology. In A textbook of In Vitro Fertilization and Assisted Reproduction, Second edition (ed.) P. R. Brinsden. 1999