Babies born after fertility treatment run increased risk of genetic disorder

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7382.184/e

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Owen Dyer

London

A UK study published last week claims that children conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment run four times the normal risk of a rare genetic imprinting disorder, Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which causes gigantism and increases the risk of childhood renal cancer.

The study was carried out by Birmingham University and the Babraham Institute in Cambridge (Journal of Medical Genetics 2003;40:62-4).

Researchers examined 149 children with the syndrome and found that three of them had been conceived by standard IVF techniques and another three by intracytoplasmic injection.

“If the incidence of births after IVF and ICSI (intracytoplasmic …