Test-tube baby treatment is “safe enough”, one of the world’s leading experts has told a major conference.
Professor Karl-Gösta Nygren, chairman of the International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART), told 20th World Congress on Fertility and Sterility yesterday that although there were small risks with conventional IVF treatment, they were low-level.
Delivering the inaugural Jean Cohen lecture at the conference in Munich, Professor Nygren, from Stockholm, Sweden, said studies have shown that IVF increases risks of pre-eclampsia, neonatal deaths, and some birth defects.
There was also “no doubt” that single embryo transfer is safer for the mother and child than multiple embryo transfer.
“To pronounce IVF to be safe or not would be an oversimplification,” he told delegates. “Nothing is totally safe. There is, of course, no such thing as a zero risk-level for pregnancy and childbirth.
Warning that doctors have it in their power to reduce risk, he said: "Some of this risk increase is iatrogenic, and therefore can be and should be prevented already.
“Some risks, like the increased risk for birth defects cannot be avoided, at present. As the field keeps evolving we need to keep watching.
“The risks are small, and need to be kept in perspective, especially when set against the potential benefit of having a child. But we can’t be complacent, we need to keep monitoring especially with new techniques, and although the risks are low, they always need to be explained to prospective parents.”
* The conference also heard about research that has found treating women with the hormone melatonin may help improve the egg quality in IVF.
A group led by Associate Professor Hiroshi Tamura, of the Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, measured the presence of the oxidising agent 8-OHdG, which is in an indicator of poor egg quality, in follicular fluids.
As the concentration of melatonin in the follicular fluids naturally increased, the level of 8-OHdG went down, leading the group to believe that melatonin was linked to the reduction of the stressing oxidising agents.
The finding was confirmed in mice before a trial was conducted with a group of women who were undergoing IVF treatment at the medical school. Those who had failed to become pregnant because of poor egg quality after one cycle of IVF were split into two groups, with 56 women having 3mg of melatonin before their next IVF cycle and 59 receiving a standard IVF cycle without any melatonin.
The team found that melatonin treatment significantly increased intra-follicular melatonin concentrations and significantly decreased the concentration of the damaging 8-OhdG. Half of the eggs from women who had taken melatonin were successfully fertilised, as opposed to 22.8 per cent in the control group.
Associate Professor Tamura commented: “Despite great advances in assisted reproductive technology, poor oocyte quality remains a serious problem for female infertility. Our work shows that oxidising agents can lessen oocyte quality, and that this can be countered by action of the hormone melatonin. In addition, our clinical trial shows that melatonin treatment improves oocyte quality, leading to a higher fertilisation rate.”
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