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Babies born to women aged over 40 from assisted reproduction have fewer birth defects compared with those from women who conceive naturally at that age, a new study has found.
This is contrary to widespread belief that the greater risk of birth defects after assisted conception is due to the frequent use of these services by older women.
According to researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia, this may point to the presence of more favourable biological conditions in IVF (in vitro fertilisations) specific to pregnancies in older women — but they are currently working to determine the exact cause.
The research is based on data of all live births recorded in Australia from 1986 to 2002, including more than 301,000 naturally conceived births, as well as 2,200 births from IVF and almost 1,400 from ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection).
The average prevalence of a birth defect was 5.7 per cent among naturally conceived births, 7.1 per cent for the IVF births, and 9.9 per cent for the ICSI births, across all age groups. In births from assisted reproduction, the prevalence of birth defects ranged from 11.3 per cent at its highest for women less than age 30 using ICSI, down to 3.6 per cent for women aged 40 and older using IVF.
For natural conceptions, the corresponding prevalence across age groups was 5.6 per cent in young women, increasing to 8.2 per cent in women aged 40 above.
The study appears in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
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