Morbidity During the First Year of Life in Children Conceived by In Vitro Fertilization in Clinic "ISIDA-IVF"

Background and aims: As in vitro fertilization (IVF) are increasingly used to overcome infertility, there is concern about the health of the children conceived via IVF. It is important to follow up these children and evaluate whether they have elevated health risks compared to naturally conceived children. Inspite of big amount of researches, it is still not enough information to make an accurate assessment of health of children, born via IVF technologies.

Methods: We monitored 81 children born in 2016 - 2018 years via IVF and 102 naturally conceived children. We assessed the morbidity during the first year of life in children conceived naturally or via IVF.

Results: Children conceived with use of IVF were more likely to have anemia (OR 1.21 95%CI 0.47 to 3.13), diseases of gastrointestinal (OR 1.84 95%CI 0.70 to 4.83) and genitourinary systems (OR 2.55 95%CI 0.22 to 28.71), also they are at higher risk of the skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases (OR 1.17 95%CI 0.57 to 2.39). We observed that children in research group have significantly lower risk of acute respiratory infection (OR 0.88 95%CI 0.49 to 1.58), neonatal diseases (OR 0.81 95%CI 0.41 to 1.83), eye (OR 0.30 95%CI 0.03 to 2.79) and ear diseases(OR 0.41 95%CI 0.01 to 10.32).

Conclusion: Children conceived by IVF were at significantly increased risk of anemia, diseases of gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems, also they are at higher risk of the skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases, when compared to those conceived by spontaneous conception. We think that further large scale research should be undertaken with long-term follow-up to assess the morbidity of IVF conceived children.