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The research suggested that the risk of stillbirth could be higher in association with certain types of IVF treatment.
Prof Peter Braude, Head of Department of Women’s Health, King’s College London, Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, said:
“This is a useful study in that it flags the importance of examining research into outcome and safety of IVF/ICSI treatment of infertility.
“The finding that infertility per se did not account for the increased stillbirth rate is novel and interesting. However, whether the substantial risk of stillbirth is substantiated must await a larger study. It must be appreciated that the sample size of IVF/ICSI (742) was very small in comparison to the fertile population studied from their national database (over 16,000); it represents only 1/14 of the babies born in the UK in just one year. A larger sample does need to be studied.
“Unfortunately due to the strict confidentiality restrictions imposed by the HFE Act (1990) it has not been possible to link IVF outcome data via our national databases to examine similar information in the UK. Since the revision of the Act in 2008 it will be possible in the future, but only with the permission of patients undergoing treatment. Sadly few of them seem willing to allow this and without their help we will still be in the dark as to what is happening in this country.”
Dr Mark Hamilton, Consultant Gynaecologist in charge of IVF services in Aberdeen, former Chair of the British Fertility Society, said:
“This is an important study illustrating that pregnancies after IVF/ICSI merit careful evaluation. Women pregnant following IVF should be reassured that the majority of pregnancies after IVF are trouble free. However it is known that certain complications in pregnancy occur with greater frequency after assisted reproduction treatment and obstetricians should be aware of this in planning care.
“Follow up of pregnancies derived from fertility treatment is an important area of research and the findings of this Danish study raise important questions which merit further examination. The UK dataset on pregnancies derived from IVF would be an extraordinarily powerful resource for further work and it is to be hoped that UK funders will consider this as a priority area.”
Mrs Alison McTavish, Secretary of the British Fertility Society, said:
“This is an important study that indicates that risk of stillbirth in patients who have undergone IVF or ICSI treatment may be higher than in patients who conceived naturally or have undergone non IVF fertility treatment.
“It is important to emphasise that this study shows the risk of stillbirth after assisted fertility treatment is still extremely low and the majority of people who have a baby following IVF/ICSI treatment have a healthy baby.
“The paper states that we still do not know the causes of stillbirth and, in spite of having a good number of cases in the study, this question has not been answered.
“It is really important that people undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment become involved in follow up studies as we need further research to assess the reasons behind this apparent difference in stillbirth rate and to identify additional ways to minimise the risk of stillbirth to all patients, whether they are undergoing fertility treatment or not.”