Childbirth through assisted reproduction has no effect on mental health

Madrid 16 cities. (European Press) –

The use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) does not worsen mental health in children during adolescence and young adulthood, according to a large observational study led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in JAMA Psychiatry, and published in JAMA Psychiatry. revealed a slightly elevated risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder in children born after surgery, but this is explained by factors of paternal origin.

“These findings are generally reassuring when it comes to the mental health of adolescents conceived with ART, a group we can now follow for the first time in early adulthood,” says study corresponding author Chen Wang. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet.

Since 1978, more than 9 million babies have been born after using assisted reproductive technologies. In vitro fertilization (IVF) has revolutionized infertility treatment to the point that Robert J. Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for its development. However, previous studies have linked IVF use with some unwanted birth outcomes, such as an increased risk of birth defects, premature births and low birth weight.

Knowledge about the long-term health of children conceived with ART is still limited. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now conducted the first large study of the mental health of Swedish-born youth after ART.

Using individually linked population data, the researchers were able to follow more than 1.2 million people born in Sweden between 1994 and 2006, including 31,565 participants with ART.

Participants were between the ages of 12 and 25 when the study ended. The researchers also had access to record-based information about clinical diagnoses of mood disorders, such as major depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or suicidal behavior.

Aside from the potential effects of the intervention, certain features and characteristics that may be more common in couples undergoing ART could also play a role in their children’s long-term health.

Therefore, researchers have taken particular care to separate the role of treatment from the influence of a wide range of paternal background factors, such as infertility, maternal and paternal age, education and mental health history.

“Finally, we did not find that ART use had any negative impact on children’s mental health as they progressed into adolescence. Individuals who carried ART had a slightly increased risk of developing OCD compared to the general population, but this was explained Through differences in parental antecedents, since this increased risk no longer exists after adjusting for different parental characteristics,” says author Sarah Oberg, associate professor in the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet.