Dr. Geetha Jain

Babies who are born through IVF, have greater risk of developing heart related problems as researchers believe that manipulation of nature in this manner is ought to have some adverse results. There were some Swiss scientists, who had compared 64 children taking birth through IVF techniques and 57 children taking birth in natural manner, found that among those 64 children, 30% of them had high pulmonary arterial pressure and greater amount of rigidity in the blood vessel at high altitude.

While considering all the things, the parents who have gone through IVF should not be concerned. To a large extent, IVF has ensured that parents get healthy children. Now, if IVF goes ahead to signal a problem, then it will suggest that all those children would have premature heart disease when they attain the ages of 50s and 60s, rather than in their 70s and 80s. Now, if one compares the premature heart disease with the gift, IVF presents parents with newborn babies, then in that regard, none of the parents should be too concerned at the moment.

A Swiss research team, which has been led by scientists at Bern University Hospital, is of the opinion that the increased risk of heart problems in latter half of life is a result of chemical processes, till the time, the embryo still remains in the Petri dish. The expression of some genes tends to get influenced by the chemicals in the cultures. The team members had pointed out that a lot of non-IVF people also tend to have the same kind of genetic markers.

One of the researchers said that they could not come to any conclusion about the study of 65 IVF children. At the time of IVF, doctors get hold of an egg from the ovaries and then they co-incubate that with sperm in the test tube. They can even directly inject a sperm into the egg to help with the process of fertilization.

One of the professors claimed that this particular phase was an extremely critical phase of development. The first ten days after sperm and the egg collide to form an embryo, a lot happens for determining normal health and then even slight bit of changes in the chemical as well as the physical environment can lead to important developmental changes in babies at the end of gestation period.

The cellular stress which the embryos could experience, might well be caused by a couple of reasons: The physical stress of getting lifted, injected or manipulated and the other reason could well be the chemical stress related to chemicals within the environment of the test tube or modifications in the level of oxygen.

As the study was relatively small, so it did not come up with conclusive evidence if babies born through IVF would suffer heart problems in the form of heart attacks or strokes. The study does indicate that in all likelihood a person will have high blood pressure, diabetes and possible heart attack or stroke in the middle age. The ideal precaution would be to take all possible healthy measure, with regard to diet, exercise and check-ups on a regular basis. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!