A new study has found that children conceived through assisted reproductive technology face higher risk of congenital heart defects.
The research, published Sept. 26 in the European Heart Journal, analyzed data from 7.7 million liveborn children, including over 171,000 born after ART. The study is based on data from several high-quality national registries in Nordic countries including Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and investigates the occurrence of CHDs in children conceived with various ART methods compared to those conceived spontaneously.
The study found that children conceived through ART had a higher occurrence of CHDs compared to those conceived naturally. Researchers also found that children from multiple pregnancies, regardless of the conception method, had the highest risk of CHDs.