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A large study has found that assisted reproduction technology, or ART, has markedly improved over the past 20 years, with the outcomes of these fertility treatments now better than ever.
Researchers used records from 92,000 children born through ART from 1988 to 2007 in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Preterm births among ART babies declined to less than 13 percent from as high as 28 percent in 1988. The rates of low-birth-weight babies also declined, mostly during the early years of the time period. And the rates of stillbirths and infant deaths among ART twins also went down. The report is online in Human Reproduction.
One reason for the decline was the increasing use of single embryo transfer, which is safer than transferring several embryos at once. Improvements in technology like freezing embryos, better culture techniques and the use of sperm injection for male infertility also contributed. In addition, more women who are younger and reproductively healthier are undergoing the procedures.
The lead author, Dr. Anna-Karina Aaris Henningsen, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said another...