Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the eat-only-within-10-hour-window dept.

Do IVF And Other Infertility Tech Lead To Health Risks For The Baby? Maybe

According to research [DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2018.06.060] [DX] published this month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, children conceived through certain infertility treatments may be at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

Parents shouldn't panic, the study's authors say: The findings are preliminary, and the study cohort was fairly small. Still, they say, it means that families who used infertility treatments should be particularly vigilant about screening for high blood pressure in their children and help them avoid other cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.

[...] [Dr. Urs] Scherrer and his colleagues followed the health of children conceived through assisted reproductive technology for more than a decade. ART [(Assisted Reproductive Technology)] is an umbrella term that covers a number of different types of procedures, including in vitro fertilization, in which sperm and eggs are mixed in a lab dish, and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, in which sperm are inserted directly into eggs. Today, roughly 2 percent of all births in the U.S are conceived via ART.

In 2012, the same team of scientists published a major paper [open, DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.071183] [DX] showing that 65 healthy kids born with the help of ART were more likely than their peers to have early signs of problematic blood vessels. The current study, comparing 54 of those original children with 43 age- and sex-matched peers, shows those early irregularities — signs of "premature vascular aging", the scientists say — persist into adolescence and young adulthood. Kids in the study who were conceived via ART are now 16 years old, on average, but have blood vessels resembling those of middle-aged adults, the scientists found.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday September 21 2018, @03:50AM (1 child)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 21 2018, @03:50AM (#737960) Journal

    Turns out that yes, our biology cares a substantial amount about our morality. Which is why we had Stephen Hawking for 76 years instead of 26 years. That's the thing about a society, it turns ideas into effects.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @02:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @02:44PM (#738147)

    well, if you're going to bring facts into the conversation...