Assisted reproductive technologies and the risk of birth defects—a systematic review

The risk of birth defects in infants born following assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment is a controversial question. Most publications examining the prevalence of birth defects in ICSI and IVF infants compared to spontaneously conceived infants have serious methodological limitations; despite this, most researchers have concluded that there is no increased risk.

We carried out a systematic review to identify all papers published by March 2003 with data relating to the prevalence of birth defects in infants conceived following IVF and/or ICSI compared with spontaneously conceived infants. Independent expert reviewers used criteria defined a priori to determine whether studies were suitable for inclusion in a meta-analysis. Fixed effects meta-analysis was performed for all studies and reviewer-selected studies.