Study: IVF linked to higher risk for mothers

TORONTO — Women who become pregnant using fertility treatments — particularly in-vitro fertilization — have a slightly higher risk of severe complications around the time of delivery compared to women who conceive naturally, research suggests.

Those complications include post-partum bleeding that may require a blood transfusion, admission to an intensive care unit, infection of the reproductive system, and — in extremely rare cases — death.

In a study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, a team of researchers compared the rate of severe complications in women who became pregnant with a reproductive technology versus those who did not need help to conceive.

“We found that 30.8 per 1,000 of the women in our study who received an infertility treatment experienced a severe pregnancy complication,” said lead researcher Dr. Natalie Dayan, director of obstetric medicine at McGill University Health Centre.

“When compared with a group of women of approximately the same age and with similar characteristics who gave birth without the use of infertility treatment, 22.2 per 1,000 experienced a severe pregnancy complication.

“But it’s important to remember that the absolute number of women who develop these complications remains quite small,” she added.

“For the vast majority of women or couples who cannot conceive naturally, this treatment is a very safe and effective method of becoming pregnant and having a child.”

In Canada, one in six couples is affected by infertility. Many turn to assisted reproductive technology, resulting in about 18,000 births each year. The rate of severe complications is approximately 10 to 15 for every 1,000 births.

Maternal deaths are even rarer, occurring in 10 or fewer births per 100,000.

Women who conceive with infertility treatments are typically older, are more often firsttime mothers or pregnant with twins, compared to women who conceive naturally.

To conduct the study, researchers looked at data from 813,719 births in Ontario hospitals between 2006 and 2012. They identified 11,546 women who conceived through an infertility treatment and matched them with 47,553 women with similar characteristics who became pregnant naturally.

Interestingly, the study found that while IVF patients had a higher risk of pregnancy complications, that wasn’t the case for women who had less invasive fertility treatments, such as intrauterine insemination or ovulation induction with medication.

Dayan said further research is needed to determine if there are factors about the women themselves, or the IVF procedure specifically, that raise the risk of pregnancy-related adverse effects.