Infertility Treatment and Congenital Malformations

ABSTRACT

Over the past 30 years, fertility treatments including fertility enhancing drugs, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF) have been revolutionized. Thus, worldwide, more than 5 million children have been born after assisted reproductive technology (ART) and domestically, it was announced that 2.83% of all births in 2011 were associated with financial support from the National Supporting Program for the Subfertile (NSPS) administered by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare (KMHW). As more women seek for fertility treatment, there is growing concern about the safety of the methods. In this review, we aim to summarize the literature on the association between fertility treatment and congenital malformations with respect to subfertility, fertility enhancing medications, and different ART methods. To sum up, although ARTs are associated with slight increase in some malformations, it appears that the increase in congenital malformations is due less to ART methods per se than to the biological perturbations that generated the infertility necessitated ART to achieve pregnancy. And no particular organ system seems disproportionately affected. It is often instructive to remind all couples attempting pregnancy that the baseline malformation rate is 2~3%, compared with 3~4% in ART.