Just a brief post today. I’ve had a couple of emails this week concerning a couple of news articles referring to research being undertaken to investigate possible links between In vitro fertilisation and Autism. I think they originatate from here: Quebec doctor probes possible autism, in-vitro fertilization link.
Between 2009 – 2010, Sackler School of Medicine (University of Tel Aviv, Israel) undertook a study on 461 children who were born as a result of IVF. Of these children 10.5% were diagnosed as being on the Autistic Spectrum, with varying degrees of severity. Typically, the expected rate of Autism in Israel is thought to be somewhere around 3.5%.
Around the same time as the Israeli study, another more general study was being conducted in the US by the Harvard School of Public Health. At the time, a more general Health study was being conducted concerning women. During this study 111 women who had Autistic children were questioned about their fertility history, specifically concerning the use of drugs which induce ovulation. Of these 111 women, 34% had used these kinds of fertility treatment. As an interesting side note – 43% of the women questioned in this study had a history of some form of fertility problem.
Obviously these are very limited research groups, as is often the case, and although they raise some interesting questions, from a purely mathematical point of view they are hardly conclusive and require much more comprehensive investigation before any firm conclusions can be made. It is in this vein that the McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, is taking the lead in a national study involving 43 of Canada’s leading fertility experts.
So, there we are, those are the facts as they stand at the moment. If you are reading this with concerns about IVF treatment, discuss it with your Doctor, but I really must reiterate that there isn’t any concrete evidence one way or the other at the moment.
I will be monitoring the latest research as and when it is published, so please feel free to contact me for any updates. I will be posting any significant findings as and when they come up.
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Thanks! I’ve been looking for some more information on this – seems quite difficult to find online.
Marie
Thank you so very much for writing this. I read the article you mentioned some days ago and have been looking for further information since which has been darn difficult to find! Reading this has given me something to think about, but we are still very determined to go ahead with IVF.