If you’ve been trying for a baby for some time now, and have been unlucky, you may find yourself asking the question, “How far am I willing to go to conceive a child?” Would you risk the chance of developing cancer? Recent research has indicated that might very well be a chance you would be taking if you turn to fertility treatments.
An extensive study has summarized that women who are given certain drugs during fertility treatments were twice as likely to develop ovarian malignancies, as compared to women who not undergoing treatments.
Details of the Study
Spanning over 15 years and led by Flora van Leeuwen of the Netherlands Cancer Insititue in Amsterdam), the analysis found that fertility drugs meant to encourage ovaries to produce extra eggs actually increase the patient’s risk of developing borderline ovarian tumors and malignant growths. The women who underwent in-vitro (IVF) could develop either cancer or borderline tumors, which are growths that have the potential to become cancerous but usually do not.
The analysis was important because it was the first of its kind that included a control group comprised of sub-fertile women who did not undergo any in-vitro fertilization. More than 25,000 women were observed of which 19,000 received IVF. From this large gathering of women, 61 malignant growths were found in the IVF, and out of 61 of these women, 31 cases were borderline tumors and the rest were invasive cancers. This proportion is unusually high as compared to sub-fertile women who did not receive IVF.
In Vitro Fertilization
Physiologist Robert G. Edwards developed in vitro fertilization and successfully produced the first “test tube baby,” Louise Brown in 1978. The term in vitro, which means “in glass,” was derived from Latin. The treatment is a process that involves fertilizing a woman’s egg cells with sperm outside of the body. Once the egg becomes fertilized, then it is transferred to the patient’s uterus, where it should ideally attach itself and bring about the pregnancy.
This is a major treatment that is widely available to many women, and it has succeeded where other methods of assisted reproductive techniques have failed. Many first-time IVF patients have an abundance of questions, and amid the most typical are questions relating to what kind of risks are involved. Until recently, no concrete risks had been associated with IVF.
Worth the Risk?
While continued research is required, all fertility experts agree that this recent analysis shows an extremely high proportion of borderline tumors. Like Peter Braude of Kings College London, many health experts, dispute that the study may raise needless concerns among women undergoing IVF. He points out that if kept proportional to the rest of the sub-fertile women only about five to seven in one thousand women might develop a malignant growth or ovarian tumor.
Regardless, you may want to think twice before admitting that you’ll “do anything” to have a baby of your own . . .
