For women worried about a new study linking frozen egg in vitro fertilization (IVF) with an increased risk of pediatric cancer, experts tell SurvivorNet not to panic — the procedure is still safe.
“The study is interesting, but the bottom line is that the majority of the existing literature suggests that IVF is safe in terms of childhood outcomes, and I wouldn’t let this one study dissuade people from undergoing fertility treatment if they need to conceive with IVF,” Dr. Jennifer Eaton, reproductive endocrinology and Infertility specialist at the Duke Fertility, Center tells SurvivorNet.
Read MoreFrozen Egg IVF and Childhood Leukemia
The study, from the Danish Cancer Society Research Center, involved 1 ,085,172 children in Denmark born between 1996 and 2012. It found the incidence rate of childhood cancer was 17.5 per 100,000 for children born to fertile women and 44.4 per 100,000 for children born after the use of frozen embryo transfer. The most frequent diagnosis was for leukemia.
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The experts say this is not a substantial difference in risk. “The additional risk associated with frozen embryo transfer would be very tiny,” says Dr. Eaton.
Further, says Dr. Yeo, the study doesn’t necessarily prove that in vitro itself is dangerous: “While there may be an association, there is no clear causation.”
And there may also be another reason why this population is diagnosed with childhood cancer at an increased rate. “In general, people who are doing IVF, whether fresh or frozen embryo transfers, those people are going to be different than people who don’t do IVF,” says Dr. Eaton, “so the association could be inherent to them, rather than to the IVF process.”
Frozen vs. Fresh Egg In Vitro
Frozen embryo in vitro, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), refers to eggs that are frozen and then thawed and fertilized later on, while fresh egg in vitro is when the egg is immediately fertilized and transferred to the intended mother or surrogate.
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