Comparison Between Children Born After Natural Conception and Those Born After Assisted Reproduction Technology: A Review of the Literature and Results from our Survey

Many studies have concluded that IVF/ICSI pregnancies carry an increased risk for multiplicity, perinatal mortality, preterm birth and low birth weight in comparison with pregnancies after spontaneous conception. Others have investigated the incidence of congenital malformations in IVF/ICSI conceptions and reported a possible increase in the incidence of central nervous system defects, chromosomal abnormalities, urogenital abnormalities and limb malformations. Concerns have been raised that assisted reproduction technology (ART) might increase the malformation rate in offspring, particularly after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). However, other studies have concluded that there is no evidence of an increase in the occurrence of malformations. The aim of this study is to summarize the present knowledge concerning malformations after ART in comparison to the spontaneously conceived children and whether this increased risk could be related to ART procedures or whether it is mainly related to parental characteristics. For this study, the literature and results from a survey as well as our data were analyzed. A total of 151 infants were born after ART at our department, among which one case of trisomy (0.66%) and one case of Potter syndrome (0.66%) were observed. In this paper, no increase in the malformation risk of infants born after ART treatment is defended.