ICSI and autism / adhd

[fertilitymum]

Hi everyone,

Looking for advice from people who have experience of ICSI and autism or adhd.

We have two children- one boy with autism and adhd and one neurotypical girl. Both naturally conceived. DH and I are desperate for a third child. Our child with autism and ADHD has a small genetic issue which it's 50/50 whether or not it caused the developmental issues so we were advised to do IVF with ICSI to select the gene out.

I have since been reading that there is a statistically significant risk of increasing autism and adhd but using ICSI.

Has anyone experienced this? Or does anyone have any advice given our situation whether or not to use ICSI?

There is more chance that your children would have autism because it runs in your families than being due to you having ICSI. The other reason it might look like tenuously like it is related to ICSI is the age of the parents when having IVF is higher and you are more likely to have an autistic child if you are an older parent.

Being honest you are very likely to have another child autism or ADHD even if you try IVF. It obviously runs in your families. Might be worth considering if you feel you are struggling to cope with your children as it is.

That's reassuring to know that it's not the procedure itself. Just to be clear, we have one child with autism and adhd and one child with neither conditions, but that's absolutely correct that having any children with either disorders increases the chances. But again really good to know that it's not likely linked to the procedure...

I’ve been worried about this too but it’s a classic example of correlation not meaning causation. As a PP said, older parents mean a higher risk. There are other risk factors causing a need for ICSI that also raise the risk (such as low quality gametes). So people who need ICSI are by definition usually higher risk anyway. No study has found an actual link between the procedure and developmental disorders or autism.