Becoming pregnant with donated eggs may pose some health risks to women, researchers have warned.
Results from a large new study suggest that women who become pregnant through egg donation are at a higher risk of problems, particularly high blood pressure, than when using IVF with their own eggs.
The study was carried out by Dr Helene Letur, of the Institut Mutualiste Montsouris in Paris, France, and her team. They looked at figures on 580 pregnancies – 217 egg donation and 363 IVF using the woman’s own eggs.
The egg donation patients had more than three times the risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension than the routine IVF patients. They also had a higher risk of pre-eclampsia, with the risks being slightly higher with increasing age. Previous pregnancies, previous IVF cycles or frozen embryo transfer had no impact on the risks.
Dr Letur and colleagues point out that with an ever-ageing population, egg donation is an increasingly common infertility treatment. Live birth rates have reached about 55% depending largely on the age of the donor, but not on the age of the recipient.
She says: "A few other studies have shown results suggesting an increased risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension in egg donation patients. However, most of them have small samples and do not adequately control for several important confounders.
"Our aim was to find out whether pregnancies from egg donation are genuinely associated with a higher risk. We would have to conclude from the results that egg donation itself is a risk factor for pregnancy-induced hypertension and pre-eclampsia. This has growing importance because of the increasing number of egg donations."
Details of this study were presented yesterday (1 July) by Dr Letur at the 30th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology held in Munich, Germany.
Abstract O-163, presented on Tuesday 1 July at the 30th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology held in Munich, Germany from 29 June to 2 July 2014.
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