For some time, doctors have known the about the link between cerebral palsy and fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization and sperm injection, but were uncertain if it was due to the treatment itself, the frequency of multiple births, or the couples’ underlying fertility.
A study published in European medical journal Human Reproduction has discovered that underlying infertility is not an issue. Led by Dr Jin Liang Zhu, an epidemiologist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, this is the first study to disprove underlying infertility as a possible cause of cerebral palsy in children.
“More research is needed into why there might be an increased risk of cerebral palsy associated with IVF/ICSI, besides the pathway of multiple pregnancies and preterm births. It is also important to remember that IVF/ICSI techniques have developed and improved considerably since 2003 when the youngest children in our study were born,” concluded Dr. Zhu.
After adjusting for other factors, another Swedish study found no statistically significant increase in cerebral palsy in children born after IVF/ICSI, The authors concluded that any slight increase in cerebral palsy was “most likely a consequence of an increased risk of neonatal morbidity, notably associated with multiple births.”
“It seems to us that the previously noted increased risk of cerebral palsy after IVF is certainly decreasing and may actually have disappeared in recent years in countries that only transfer a single embryo at one time. This is good news,” said Professor Karl Nygren , one of the authors of the Swedish study.