To wonder if IVF causes cancer

[hmhwd]

Posting here for traffic

If you google it then websites like NHS will say there's no proven links and that's what my fertility doc has said. But then there's anecdotal stories (online, irl) of people saying their oncologists have said that the cause of the cancer they had (particularly gynae cancers) is IVF.

I’d imagine it’s right wing American nutters

Life causes cancer.... 50% of is will get it, so not worth stressing about IVF, I would have thought.

If the NHS and reputable charities say there is no proven link, you are just scaremongering posting this.

It does tend to be us sites who have theories like this but I also know here in the uk unless something is signed off by nice they won't even consider saying there's a link.
Sorry just to add I'm not saying there is or there isn't a link. I'm not an expert at all on this.

I’m pretty sure studies do suggest that IVF increases total lifetime risk of certain cancers (ovarian I think) but the overall risk is still small. If you’ve got a family history then it might be enough to persuade you not to go ahead. Otherwise it seems a pretty negligible concern

American IVF seems more extreme than Englands. They seem to aim to stimulate more follicle growth to get more eggs at once whereas here they’re really cautious about the side effects of that (OHSS) and err on the side of fewer eggs equals better quality so aim for less. I’m not saying I know enough to know if the different approaches have any long term affects though.

My understanding is that the more you ovulate the greater the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Hence the protective effects of pregnancy, breastfeeding and hormonal contraception. So I don’t believe that stimulating the ovaries to produce multiple eggs many times over can be completely risk free.

As far as the research stands - there is no proven link between the two - and I have read the research as a biologist who has had both IVF and breast cancer. Logically, it does seem that there could be a link - but if there is, perhaps it applies to particular women with other risk factors and the overall increased risk cannot be very high or it would should up more clearly. I think it's natural to wonder about it. Here's a fairly recent meta-analysis (so combined results from 25 studies on over 600,000 women):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8830753/