Quoted from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_ParentingResource/fertility-methods-raise-risk-birth-defects-study-finds/story?id=16280515
Fertility Methods Raise Risk of Birth Defects
By LARA SALAHI May 5, 2012
Babies conceived with infertility treatment methods are more likely to have certain birth defects than babies who are conceived naturally, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Australian researchers looked at medical records nearly 300,000 babies born in Australia -- more than 4,000 of whom were conceived through an assisted fertility method -- to see if babies born using the various assisting methods were more likely to have birth defects than babies who were conceived naturally.
Eight percent of the babies conceived through assistance were born with birth defects such as heart, genital, kidney, lung and muscle problems, compared to nearly 6 percent of babies who were conceived naturally, the study found. Those conceived through fertility assistance were also more likely to have cerebral palsy.
More than 6 million women of childbearing age in the U.S. have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ISI), a so-called assisted reproductive technology in which a single sperm is injected into a removed egg and then transferred back to the uterus was the most common type of method associated with birth defects, the study found. The oral hormone pill commonly known as Clomid also increased the risk for defects.
