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The author perceives that there has been a shift away from academics and toward private practice in reproductive endocrinology and infertility over the last 25 years. It has been difficult to integrate assisted reproductive technology into academic medicine in the United States.
BACKGROUND: The increased risk of low birth weight associated with the use of assisted reproductive technology has been attributed largely to the higher rate of multiple gestations associated with such technology. It is uncertain, however, whether singleton infants conceived with the use of assisted reproductive technology may also have a higher risk of low birth weight than those who are conceived spontaneously. METHODS: We used population-based data to compare the rates of low birth weight (less-than-or-equal 2500 g) and very low birth weight (<1500 g) among infants conceived with assisted reproductive technology with the rates in the general population. RESULTS: We studied 42,463 infants who were born in 1996 and 1997 and conceived with assisted reproductive technology and used as a comparison group 3,389,098 infants born in the United States in 1997. Among singleton infants born at 37 weeks of gestation or later, those conceived with assisted reproductive technology had a risk of low birth weight that was 2.6 times that in the general population (95 percent confidence interval, 2.4 to 2.7). The use of assisted reproductive technology was associated with an increased rate of multiple gestations; however, its use was not associated with a further increase in the risk of low birth weight in multiple births. Among twins, the ratio of the rate of low birth weight after the use of assisted reproductive technology to the rate in the general population was 1.0 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.0 to 1.1). Infants conceived with assisted reproductive technology accounted for 0.6 percent of all infants born to mothers who were 20 years of age or older in 1997, but for 3.5 percent of low-birth-weight and 4.3 percent of very-low-birth-weight infants. CONCLUSIONS: The use of assisted reproductive technology accounts for a disproportionate number of low-birth-weight and very-low-birth-weight infants in the United States, in part because of absolute increases in multiple gestations and in part because of higher rates of low birth weight among singleton infants conceived with this technology.
The process of technology assessment is evolving. The process of policy development for technology is the least understood in the cycle of technology assessment. The process of policy development, which should involve extensive consultation and a broad-based research and evaluation program, is often fraught with difficulties and can cause further analysis or the assessment process to come grinding to a halt. This article reviews some social, political, and ethical issues and the role of civil society in influencing the technology assessment process for new reproductive technologies in Canada. It is written from the perspective of one of the Deputy Directors of Research and Evaluation for the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies and highlights the strengths and difficulties of technology assessment when civil society and technology assessment come face to face. A brief update by a policy analyst in Health Canada on the current situation of legislation on new reproductive technologies has been provided and is included at the end of this article.
This Comment traces assisted reproductive technologies from their historical beginnings in early artificial insemination techniques, through the revolutionary advent of in vitro fertilization two decades ago, and continues to current experimental procedures such as embryo twinning and cryopreservation of ova. It then examines the worldwide controversy surrounding clinical use of these technologies and international attempts to resolve these issues. The final focus is on whether or not a consensus exists within the international legal community on how to tackle the complex issues presented by recent advances in reproductive technology.
The use of modern reproductive technology, such as in-vitro fertilization and its related procedures, has opened new areas of legal, religious and public concern. Thirty years ago, the development of effective methods to control procreation generated a debate on whether couples had the right to enjoy sex in the absence of its procreative effect. Today, assisted reproductive technology (ART) allows couples to have their own children in the absence of a direct intermediation of sex. The Catholic Church has reacted against both contraception and ART, and specific instructions have been directed to the public, the medical profession and legislators. In a recent survey, 88.4% of the population in Latin America claims to be Catholic; therefore, bioethical considerations and legal implications concerning intervention in reproduction are strongly permeated by the moral teachings of Catholicism. In 1996, 83 medical doctors and scientists, participating in the Latin American Network of Assisted Reproduction, produced a consensus document on ethical aspects and legal implications of ART. The document contains minimal ethical guidelines that Latin American professionals have decided to adhere to, even in the absence of legal regulations. This article examines how the medical profession, legislators and the public react to religious influence when confronted by difficult bioethical decisions such as the right to procreate.
The practice of assisted reproduction technology today is the result of the dedicated patient care, observation, research, and experimentation undertaken by previous generations of physicians. The building blocks of progress have been assembled over past decades, by scientists whose primary objective has been to push forward the frontiers of knowledge, in order to offer more effective methods of infertility treatment. And fortunately that process continues today. Amongst the many scientific developments that have led to the modern practice in assisted reproductive technology, a small number stand out as having had a unique importance. This historical review redraws the path through which in vitro fertilization went from an experimental to an accepted infertility treatment.
The confluence of genetic and reproductive technologies has significantly expanded the scope of available reproductive options. To ensure appropriate dissemination of information and timely referral for preconception counseling, nurses in all specialties must be aware of the clinical indications for advanced reproductive technologies.
OBJECTIVE: To review the medical, social, and financial risks caused by the birth of multiples that need to be addressed in policy and practice. RESULT(S): Many risks of multiple births are described in the literature. The medical risks to the offspring include death, low birth weight, deformational plagiocephaly, and other physical and mental disabilities. Risks to the women include premature labor, premature delivery, pregnancy-induced hypertension, toxemia, gestational diabetes, and vaginal-uterine hemorrhage. Children born in multiples face difficulty socializing, developmental delays, and behavioral problems, whereas their parents risk exhaustion, depression, and anxiety. In addition to personal costs faced by families, society often bears the financial costs of overburdened hospitals, caps on insurance and/or inability of parents to cover expenses. CONCLUSION(S): Multiple births present potential acute and long-term medical risks to the pregnant woman and her children. However, more long-term follow-up research and more research on outcomes with higher-order multiples are needed. In designing practices and policies to improve the success of IVF while reducing the risk of multiples, it is important to balance the many interests involved. At a minimum, providers and patients need to be educated about the risks of multiple gestation so that steps can be taken to prevent adverse outcomes.
Current use of reproductive technology in the Australian livestock industries is limited, though it increased in line with higher prices for beef and wool through the 1980s. The required techniques, many of which were developed in Australia, are available and the level of expertise is comparable to the best in the world. However, the extensive pastoral industries do not readily lend themselves to these procedures. Only in the dairy industry is artificial insemination used to a significant degree. On the other hand, application of the technology in the pastoral industries is confined largely to studs and breeding cooperatives which provide breeding animals for producer flocks and herds. Hence the impact of applied technology may be more widespread than first appears. Until recently, little regard was paid to application of the technology along sound breeding principles. Artificial insemination and multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET) have not been used so much in planned breeding programmes aimed at local improvement of stock, but more to proliferate genes of reputedly superior stock, imported either from overseas or elsewhere in Australia. This is particularly true of MOET, where the incentive to use it is commonly a short term cash gain made from proliferating breeding stock of a particularly valuable and usually novel strain or breed. Recent technological improvements which render the use of reproductive technology cheaper and more effective will lead to its more widespread use in commercial practice. Techniques for embryo freezing and splitting have been greatly simplified and quickly put into practice. The novel livestock technologies of in vitro oocyte maturation and fertilization have already found commercial application overseas. Fecundity-enhancing products have also been adopted by the livestock industries. There is potential value for greater use of reproductive technology in the livestock industries provided it is implemented according to sound breeding principles and provided associated management practices are applied simultaneously.
OBJECTIVE: Ovulation induction, the usual resort of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), has been suspected of carrying a responsibility in the genesis of ovarian tumours. For patients with a borderline or invasive ovarian tumour, treated by conservative surgery and desiring to become pregnant, the problem is thus of a possible resort to the Assisted Reproductive Technologies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a multicenter, national and retrospective study. 40 operated patients between January 1971 and January 2001 have been included. 27 patients (67.5%) had a borderline tumour, 10 (25%) a non-epithelial tumour (germinal or stromal) and 3 (7.5%) an epithelial invasive carcinoma. All these patients have benefited from a conservative surgical management of fertility. The Assisted Reproductive Technologies were simple stimulation for 5 women and IVF for the 35 others. The effectiveness and the risks of Assisted Reproductive Technologies have been estimated respectively by the number of pregnancies obtained and the recurrence rates. RESULTS: With a global follow-up of 372 months (January 1971: date of the primary surgical procedure--June 2002: closing of the study), 17 patients have obtained 17 pregnancies with the Assisted Reproductive Technologies, rate of 42.5% (17/40): 1 spontaneous abortion, 16 delivery with 23 children (triple pregnancies and 3 twin pregnancies). 3 patients treated for a borderline tumour have had a recurrence after induction of ovulation. Among the 40 patients, no one presented an evolved disease at the last news. The patients who had a recurrence had a delay to begin the Assisted Reproductive Technologies significantly lower than the patients who had no recurrence. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The assisted reproductive technologies for patients who had been treated for a borderline or invasive ovarian tumour, and who were infertile in spite of conservative management, have allowed 42.5% of these women to obtain a pregnancy and does not seem to increase significantly the risk of recurrence.
In Canada, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act received royal assent on 29 March 2004. The approach proposed by the federal government responds to Canadians' strong desire for an enforceable legislative framework in the field of reproduction technologies through criminal law. As a result of the widening gap between the rapid pace of technological change and governing legislation, a distinct need was perceived to create a regulatory framework to guide decisions regarding reproductive technologies. In this article the three main topics covered in the new legislation are commented on: cloning, germline therapy, and purchase of gametes and embryos. Some important issues also covered in the new legislation, such as privacy and access to information, data protection, identity of donors, and inspection, will not be addressed.
The clinical practice of assisted reproductive technology combines cutting-edge medical science and its nearly immediate application to clinical practice, thus epitomizing academic medical practice. However, assisted reproductive technology programs find it difficult to remain within the academic setting, owing to the lack of flexibility of academic practice plans.
Recent studies suggest a possible link between human assisted reproductive technology and genomic imprinting disorders. Assisted reproductive technology includes the isolation, handling and culture of gametes and early embryos at times when imprinted genes are likely to be particularly vulnerable to external influences. Evidence of sex-specific differences in imprint acquisition suggests that male and female germ cells may be susceptible to perturbations in imprinted genes at specific prenatal and postnatal stages. Imprints acquired first during gametogenesis must be maintained during preimplantation development when reprogramming of the overall genome occurs. In this review, we will discuss both new developments in our understanding of genomic imprinting including the mechanisms and timing of imprint erasure, acquisition and maintenance during germ cell development and early embryogenesis as well as the implications of this research for future epigenetic studies in reproduction and assisted reproductive technology.
Several aspects of reproductive technology are discussed. In tubal infertility, the choice between surgery or in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) is addressed. In cases with bilateral distal occlusion or otherwise bad prognosis, IVF is probably more successful and less expensive. IVF in unstimulated cycles has given promising results, with pregnancy rates comparable to the results from the National IVF-ET Registry. If these results can be confirmed by more studies they will probably have a great impact on the choice of treatment in tubal infertility. The results obtained with various transfer procedures in nontubal infertility have still to prove tubal transfer to be a more effective procedure than IVF. Finally, studies on microinsemination in male infertility or unexplained infertility with previous fertilization failure in IVF show promising results with the subzonal insemination and partial zona dissection procedures.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review addresses the question of whether there is evidence of an increased risk of birth defects in children born following assisted reproductive technologies compared with spontaneously conceived children. RECENT FINDINGS: Three recent studies added relatively little new information given their modest size (56-472 assisted reproductive technology children). We therefore considered all published papers that compared birth defects in children born following assisted reproductive technologies with those in children born following spontaneous conception. Overall, only six of the 26 relevant papers concluded there was an increased risk of birth defects following assisted reproductive technologies. The interpretation of many studies was based on statistical significance testing alone. When results showed a greater proportion of defects in the assisted reproductive technology group compared with the spontaneous group, but the results were not statistically significant, this was often interpreted as showing no increase in risk, rather than an increase in risk that may have been due to chance. The vast majority of individual studies were too small to have sufficient power to detect, as statistically significant, clinically relevant results. We found that although only eight (30%) of the studies had statistically significant results, 24 (89%) had an odds ratio estimate comparing assisted reproductive technology with spontaneously conceived children of over 1.0; 19 (70%) had an estimate of 1.20 or greater; and 14 (52%) had an estimate of 1.5 or greater. SUMMARY: Current evidence suggests there is an elevated risk of birth defects in children born following assisted reproductive technologies. Whilst others may disagree with our interpretation, one certainly cannot exclude this possibility on the basis of the current evidence.
As one of the new reproductive technologies, amniocentesis is rapidly becoming routinized, especially for pregnant women in their mid-thirties and older. Prenatal diagnosis has been evaluated medically, economically, and bioethically. But we know very little about how pregnant women and their families who use, or might use, this new technology respond to its benefits and burdens. This article reports on a two-year field study in New York City. Responses of genetic counselors, a multicultural patient population using and refusing amniocentesis, women who had received "positive" diagnoses, and families with children who have the conditions that can now be diagnosed prenatally were all elicited through participant-observation. My goal in this study is to assess the social impact and cultural meaning of one new reproductive technology.
In 1999, the approximately 90,000 in vitro fertilization procedures accounted for 98% of all types of assisted reproductive technologies in the United States. Since 1992, when Congress recognized a public health interest in reporting accurate and timely information about pregnancy success rates for infertility treatments, success has been defined as a live birth after an assisted reproductive technology cycle, regardless of the number of live-born infants per delivery. Because of pressures to achieve success, often more than one pre-embryo is transferred per cycle, frequently resulting in multifetal pregnancy reduction or multiple births. Twin and higher order births associated with assisted reproductive technology have increased significantly since 1980. Although births resulting from assisted reproductive technology amount to less than 1% of all live births, they now account for about a third of all twin births and more than 40% of triplets and higher number births in the United States. Although multiple births fit the current definition of success, they create much higher risks for maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, contributing to more than $640 million in excess initial hospital costs during the year 2000 alone. With recent improvements in assisted reproductive technology procedures that increase the likelihood of delivery after the transfer of just one pre-embryo per cycle, it is time to re-examine how success is measured. Assisted reproductive technology success should be redefined to be the proportion of cycles resulting in a singleton, live birth.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Laparoscopy is widely used during infertility work-up, although it is sometimes unnecessary. This review highlights when laparoscopic intervention should be used in women undergoing assisted reproductive technology cycles. RECENT FINDINGS: There is no evidence for an increase in pregnancy rates in assisted reproductive technology cycles following surgical treatment of pelvic adhesions or endometriosis with laparoscopy. If the patient has bilateral visible hydrosalpinges, laparoscopy may be an option for evaluation of the tubes and treatment with salpingectomy in order to enhance the chance of pregnancy before commencing an assisted reproductive technology cycle. Laparoscopic ovarian drilling before assisted reproductive technology may be considered a therapeutic option in polycystic ovary disease patients who previously had severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Finally, laparoscopy may be useful in replacing the transposed ovaries to their original sites in the pelvic cavity in previously treated cancer patients so that monitoring of the controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and the oocyte aspiration would be much easier during the assisted reproductive technology cycles. SUMMARY: Laparoscopy should be considered before assisted reproductive technology cycles if the procedure diagnoses and treats a pelvic pathology at the same time and if laparoscopic intervention increases the chance of pregnancy following these cycles.