Fertility treatments may increase risk of preterm birth

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-02-09 03:00

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Chinese scientists say fertility treatments may increase the risk of preterm birth. They looked at data from more than 14 million mother-newborn pairs, including 122,944 conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART), and 71,176 conceived by other reproductive (non-ART) treatments. They found babies conceived by ART and the other procedures were more likely than babies conceived naturally to be born preterm, very preterm, or extremely preterm. In naturally conceived babies, preterm births occurred in 7.6 per cent of cases, while in ART conceived babies, preterm births occurred in 10.7 per cent of cases, and in non-ART fertility treatment groups, preterm births occurred in 9.3 per cent of cases. The researchers suggest further work on the link between reproductive treatments and preterm births is warranted.