According to a report in the online edition of Human Reproduction, assisted reproductive technology, or ART which in the U.S. is 99% IVF, has markedly improved over the past 20 years, with the outcomes of these fertility treatments now better than ever.
Researchers used records from 92,000 children born through ART from 1988 to 2007 in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Preterm births among ART babies declined to less than 13 percent from as high as 28 percent in 1988. The rates of low-birth-weight babies also declined, mostly during the early years of the time period. And the rates of stillbirths and infant deaths among ART twins also went down.
One reason for the decline was the increasing use of single embryo transfer, which is safer than transferring several embryos at once. Improvements in technology like freezing embryos, better culture techniques and the use of sperm injection for male infertility also contributed. In addition, more women who are younger and reproductively healthier are undergoing the procedures.
The lead author, Dr. Anna-Karina Aaris Henningsen, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said another reason for the improvement was that doctors and laboratory personnel had become more skilled at the complex techniques.
“The difference in the health of ART babies compared with those naturally conceived has declined substantially,” she said. “There will never be no difference between the two groups, but we are closer than ever.”
Adding the technologies of blastocyst transfer and preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) at RPMG has made the single embryo transfer more realistic leading to much better success rates than transferring multiple embryos in the past which was done to achieve good pregnancy rates.