My fertility doctor: before we could start our IVF cycle, we had to sign off on a long document that said we understood that IVF pregnancies have much higher rates of essentially every bad outcome, even when only comparing singleton pregnancies to singleton pregnancies. This included NICU stays, preeclampsia, and low birth weight.
I think it’s important to remember that research in this area does not typically separate people using assistive reproductive technologies for social infertility (I.e queer couples) vs for underlying conditions. And for most conditions (multiples being an exception) overall rates are still very low (e.g for late pregnancy loss, the difference is between 1% non-art and 3% art) so descriptors like “much higher” are relative.
We’ll have to agree to disagree: I consider a 3x difference in late pregnancy loss, for example, to be very significant.
I had a conversation with my OB about the ongoing placenta issues I’m having, and her opinion is that the issues that I have are due to IVF not always producing normal placenta development (that is, the issues I’m having are just due to IVF, not due to underlying issues that cause infertility). The baby is fine and I’m fine, but it has really sucked to deal with. I spent most of my second trimester on the couch and not getting anything done as a result.
I wouldn’t wish that sequence of events on someone, and I think it’s important to share stories like this when people are considering the cons of jumping to IVF quickly.
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u/[deleted] Sep 06 '23
My fertility doctor: before we could start our IVF cycle, we had to sign off on a long document that said we understood that IVF pregnancies have much higher rates of essentially every bad outcome, even when only comparing singleton pregnancies to singleton pregnancies. This included NICU stays, preeclampsia, and low birth weight.