Comparative study of congenital malformation between naturally conceived children and those after IVF

ABSTRACT

To detect and assess any difference that might exist as regards the overall and specific congenital malformation rates between children born after IVF and naturally conceived children. We compared overall and specific congenital malformation rates calculated for IVF children [n =170 naturally conceived children [n = 600] using records from the KAUH the years 2000-2002 controlling for confounding maternal factors. After correction for differences in maternal age, parity between the IVF and control population the OR was 1, 03 [95% CI 0.86-1.23]. The crude OR for IVF children appeared higher for the cardiovascular organ system and for several specific minor congenital malformations. However, these could be chance findings due to comparison of many malformation categories or may result from remaining differences in ascertaining malformations between IVF and naturally conceived children. The small increase in overall congenital malformations observed in the IVF children appears to be attributable to differences in maternal characteristics