Is it true that children conceived with the help of IVF are barren?

It is common that children who were born after applying the extracurporeal fertilization procedure (IVF) will have problems with a natural conception in the future. We decided to check whether such fears are fair.

This topic Discuss future mothers going to make eco on parental And female forums, as well as on Pages medical institutions. Users ask about this services questions and answers. Some even turn to Media With a request to find out whether IVF affects the fertility of children in this way. You can find such information on specialized sites In articles on the consequences of this procedure.

ECO (Extracorporeal fertilization) is a procedure during which the eggs are extracted from the woman’s body and fertilized by spermatozoa in laboratory conditions, and a few days later are placed back for further growth and development. To prepare a woman’s body for the procedure, drug therapy is also used. Sometimes for IVF use donor eggs or sperm, for example, to avoid Inheritance of genetic diseases. If necessary, the procedure is supplemented Ixi - intracitoplasmic sperm injection. It is necessary when, for some reason, the sperm can not independently penetrate the egg and gain a foothold in it.

The first child, conceived with the help of eco, was born In the UK in 1978. In 2010, a British researcher Robert Edwardswho helped Louise Brown be born, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for the development of this method. In 2007, Louise was able conceive the child naturally gave birth to her first son, and six years later - second. Her sister Natalie Brown She was also born thanks to IVF and became a mother, without resorting to auxiliary reproductive technologies, even earlier - in 1999. In 2015, she gave birth to a fifth child.

The IVF procedure appeared relatively recently, but was widespread even later - for example, Natalie Brown, born in 1982, became only 40th child, conceived in this way. Although in the world thanks to eco Born Already several million people, high -quality long -term research or statistics on their fertility, so far is practically no.

In 2010, an international group of scientists I studied The indicators of children conceived using ICSI during the IVF procedure revealed in boys an anomaly of the length of the fingers (relative to growth) and the ratio of the length of the index finger to the ringless. Such an anomaly is often observed in people with Azoospermia - the lack of sperm in the seed fluid, so the scientists came to the conclusion that the sons, for the conception of which ICI was required, can inherit infertility from the fathers. It is to this argument They come running Supporters statementsthat the use of IVF will now lead to an even greater need for it in the future.

If during the ECO, the couple does not turn to the services of donors, in this way the child receives the genetic material of his parents, as is also happening with a natural conception, including hereditary diseases. In this case, the son can really get genetically determined problems with the fertility from his father. However, this is in no way connected with the IVF procedure itself: if the parents of these children still managed to conceive them in a natural way, most likely the result would be the same. Since Ixi is an even more “young” technology than IVF (the first child, conceived with its help, was born Only in 1992), long -term qualitative research and statistical data on the ability to conception in born due to its use of children are also absent.

Moreover, IVF is carried out in many testimony, in no way related to genetic diseases that the child can inherit: for example, in case of damage or obstruction of the fallopian tubes, Endometriosis (growth of fabric similar to the uterine mucosa, beyond its borders), benign uterine tumors, loss of fertility due to the treatment of cancer (if the eggs or spermatozoa have been extracted and frozen), etc. Today there are no scientific data that would confirm that the child, born after the ECO in these and similar cases, may be incomprehensible to these and similar cases. natural conception in the future. In other words, the procedure itself does not affect the ability to detect the unborn child. 

Besides, already now exists The technology for editing embryos genes in IVF, when DNA fragments responsible for inheritance, for example, cardiovascular diseases or breast cancer, are replaced with healthy ones. Therefore, perhaps, medicine will soon be able to solve the problem of inherited in Eco infertility.

Thus, there is no reason to believe that the IVF procedure affects the fertility of the children born thanks to it. If the infertility of the parents is due to genetic abnormalities, it is likely that it is transmitted to children, as it happens with a natural conception. In this case, the couple can use donor material. However, many indications for IVF are not related to genetic diseases, and in these cases there is no reason for fears that children will inherit from their parents inability to conception. Despite the fact that there are no long -term statistical data on the reproductive abilities of children born with the help of IVF, there are no examples of people who were born thanks to this procedure, and then they were successfully able to conceive children naturally.

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