Having second thoughts about doing IVF after i've just found out this information

[Hdaniels11]

I've been in the infertility world for about 3 years and have been thinking about IVF for a while. I've been looking into it and google and everywhere i look it says IVF babies have a 50% increased risk of heart defects. WHAT? Is that true? do he literally never heard anything about that until now.
50% is massive!

I also learnt that Babies born from IVF have a much higher risk of any type of childhood cancer, as well as hepatic tumours compared with children born from natural conception.
I know ANY child or person can inevitably get cancer at any time but seeing all this stuff about their being a higher risk is scaring me.

I would love some insight into how accurate this is?
Has anyone got children made from IVF with these issues?
Aibu to be worried

50% increase in something that's quite rare is still rare. Most heart defects are very treatable anyway.

I'm not saying these stats are wrong but I've never particularly known a child born from IVF who has any heart issues or cancer or anything- which goes to show how rare it is.

There is a lot of anecdata on this thread. Do look into the numbers and try to understand what they are saying. 2% of UK births are babies who have been born as a result of IVF. There are some areas where there are increased risks, some of these risks are still very small. No amount of statistical data analysis will predict the outcomes for your child and there are many many other factors that impact our lives, many of which are wildly unpredictable. There are many many things to weigh up when deciding to have children and most people don't consider half of the things they should and most are incapable of understanding the true impact that having children will have on their lives, even without factoring IVF into the picture. Take your time to make this decision, it is a big one.. ..

I haven’t got children through IVF but both of my sisters in law do. They’re all perfectly healthy and no health problems, some of them are well into their teens and nothing so far. A couple were a bit premature but not enough to cause any complications.

It’s a small increase in risk yes but don’t let that put you off as there’s always a risk, it’s still minimal. Wishing you all the best with whatever you decide to do <3

My ds has a chromosomal disorder (conceived naturally) and we saw a consultant geneticist as part of the diagnosis. I can't remember how it came up, but he really shocked me by saying IVF is still in its infancy and he would never recommend it due to the risks. He made it out to be some sort of really dangerous experiment. I know quite a few dc who are results of IVF and they are all fine.

I was an egg donor, after I’d had an ectopic a miscarriage then 3 children.
The counselling beforehand, said that if you had any hereditary issues that you don’t disclose, you can be sued.
I don’t know my families medical history, they accepted me based on the fact I had three healthy children.
all of my eggs went to a couple who had been through ivf more than twice, without success.

She got pregnant straight away, she had a healthy baby girl, they might have more children, using my eggs.
I wouldn’t be put off by the percentage rate.
Best of luck to you.

Where did you receive this info fell please?

I think the sperm injected into the egg ivf is slightly riskier than regular ivf where the sperm swim and find the egg on its own. Otherwise the risk is much the same. Also consider that the population of ivf babies is much smaller than the general population and this includes some issues that maybe passed down from parents to children (hence why ivf is required). It's not a black and white picture.
The risk is very small and not really worth getting excited about, much less to put you off if that's a required treatment.

If it's what you want don't let this put you off. Are there figures for long time' frozen eggs vs 'fresher' ones? Could the increased risk apply more to 2nd and 3rd attempts?
I work in healthcare and we can sometimes focus on 2 set of metrics. Maybe being obese or a smoker has a similar effect. These are things within your control. Find data that is applicable to you eg overweight non smoker, PCOS, white 36F....
As others have said the risks are small.

Are you sure you are not confused about the 50% thing? As a 50% increase does not mean there is a 50% chance they'll have a heart problem.

It means that, if normally there would be a 2% risk of heart problems, there now is a 3% risk.

But please correct me someone if I'm wrong as last maths I did was A level 😵

I know I'm just one case but I have a 2.5 year old from icsi. He's got no Sen and has always either hit his milestones early or on time. Healthy too.

These are very personal experiences - I’m a high achieving IVF baby born over 38 years ago (when IVF was in its infancy). I think it’s unhelpful rhetoric and particularly triggering to make broad statements about SEN / health issues about IVF babies. There’s dozens of factors which may impact how a baby thrives into childhood and beyond and no concrete data against IVF. There really should be a trigger warning on this thread because there is a lot of unsupported generalisations which may cause unnecessary alarm for people going through or considering IVF.

FWIW - my children are IVF and all completely “normal”, happy thriving children.

There are risks with everything.

As someone who failed with it three times, after losing multiple babies, then carried three pregnancies around 40, I would be more put off by the success rate and the emotional impact

Three pregnancies naturally.

@SEMama2022 agree entirely

Name changed for this as it’s a fairly specific situation. Our DS1 was conceived naturally and has a genetic condition we didn’t know we were carriers for. We had IVF with genetic testing for our second so they wouldn’t be affected by the same condition. There was a 1 in 4 or 25% chance of this happening.

They did tell us during consent that there was a slightly higher risk of congenital abnormalities. It is small, those 1% to 1.5/2% figures are about right. I kind of thought

a) that chance is small compared to the big chance of the other
condition,
b) who could be that unlucky? Surely that wouldn’t happen.

We said at the time we were testing for one condition but anything else could still happen but we didn’t really believe it would.

DS2 does have quite a complicated congenital heart problem. This absolutely floored us.

We did an antenatal class for babies with known heart problems and of the group of 5 couples 3 were IVF babies.

But 1 in 100 babies, IVF or not do have a congenital heart problem. And DS2 is fabulous and it’s so lovely seeing them together and we are lucky to have two fantastic children.

So it’s worth thinking about but this would be the case for having a baby by any means.

A quick google says a 1.3% chance vs just under 0.9% (44% increase).
So a comparative increase in risk, but overall still a pretty small risk. If 0.9% doesn’t put you off having a child, I don’t see why the extra 0.4% should!

This is true, but pregnancy reduces the risk. I was told by an ovarian cancer expert that this cancels out the increased risk if the IVF is successful.

FWIW, I have a healthy and very intelligent DD through IVF.

If IVF was that dangerous, it would be illegal. There are people who oppose IVF for religious reasons, and I wonder whether some of the scare stories come from that source.
There are increased risks of many things but on the scheme of things they are pretty trivial increases, and not worth not doing it if that's your only/best way of having children.
A big reason why IVF has a bigger risk is because it is mostly older parents who are doing it and/or parents with a risk of something eg I had my eggs frozen when I was young because I had cancer. My IVF kids have an increased chance of cancer, but because they are genetically mine, not because (or mainly because) of IVF. (And it's way healthier for me to have kids this way than using my natural eggs now that have been tortured and fried with chemo.)

And difficulties conceiving would indicate ‘some sort of hereditary condition’ … wtf is this?

seriously disgusting comment!

after 3 miscarriages and considering IVF some helpful person made a similar comment to me, “maybe God is trying to tell you something”

I think that’s such a shitty comment to make to someone struggling with infertility.

I'm not suggesting for a second that there's anything wrong with people using IVF, whatever their circumstances.

I'm trying to think where the mildly elevated risk, if it exists, may come from. It could help inform people who are worried about it to gauge what it means for them and their circumstances.

When I had a particular procedure once, I was warned of the risks of tooth damage. The anaesthetist explained to me that the percentage was elevated by the fact that some people have dental problems that make their teeth weaker. It wasn't likely to apply to me as my teeth were very healthy.

She wasn't suggesting that people at higher risks were wrong to have the procedure or making any kind of moral judgement about it. It wasn't a moral issue. She was simply explaining how the stats came about so that I could assess what they meant for me and my situation.

It's a shame the comment has now been deleted due to someone's complete misreading of it, but I guess them's the breaks. Just let me assure you that it did not say what that poster thought it said.

I've got a child conceived via clomid and a family history of childhood cancer 😒

Agree too many really unkind comments on this thread and not helpful to the OP and some are massively disrespectful to those having undergone IVF and their children.
I’m off but good luck OP and suggest you speak with reputable clinic about your concerns