New inquiry to check health of IVF babies

Britain is to launch a study into the potential health problems faced by the 68,000 children conceived as a result of fertility treatment since the first test-tube baby was born in 1978.

Growing concern about the likely effects of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) on the long-term health of children has led the Government to sanction an inquiry into how to study any future problems.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) have set up a joint working party, chaired by Professor Catherine Peckham, a senior epidemiologist at the Institute of Child Health in London, who will decide how to carry out the long-term follow-up of all IVF children born during the past 23 years.

The working party, whose existence has yet to be formally announced by the MRC, has met several times since it was set up this summer. It will oversee the first follow-up studies of IVF children, expected to begin at the end of next year.

A spokeswoman for the HFEA emphasised there are no specific reasons to believe IVF children are at any greater risk of ill health in later life than children conceived naturally, but that might be because not enough effort has been put into discovering any problems. She said: "We're looking at the available evidence and there is nothing to suggest undue concern, but the research is not sufficient to provide us with the confidence we would like."

Some fertility specialists are concerned about a number of overseas studies published this year suggesting that IVF treatment, particularly when it involves frozen embryos or a technique of injecting sperm directly into the egg, may be unsafe. More than 7,000 babies have been born in the UK as a result of freezing embryos and hundreds as a result of intra- cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which is becoming almost routine in some clinics.

Lord Winston, professor of fertility studies at Imperial College School of Medicine, said his own laboratory at the Hammersmith Hospital in London plans to publish evidence that freezing embryos interrupts the normal "expression" or activity of vital genes.

Lord Winston said: "Essentially, we have reason to believe that gene expression may change after different injuries and we've got some evidence to support that [with frozen embryos]. Basic functions such as growth, respiration and metabolism are regulated by genes, and if you change the way those genes are expressed – even temporarily – during times of rapid development, such as an embryo, you may well expect to see changes in the way the embryo develops."

Lord Winston said it was important to focus on long-term effects of IVF treatment, particularly when it involves some of the more recent developments such as freezing embryos for later implantation into the mother's womb.

"Nobody's looked, that's why I think it needs to be done. And the reason why I think nobody's looked is because there is a huge commercial advantage in freezing embryos. There's a commercial advantage to the patient as well as to the unit," he said.

"I am genuinely worried we are adopting techniques we don't need to adopt at this stage before we have actually done tests that are available."

Lord Winston is particularly scathing of clinics who are using the relatively new technique of egg freezing. Last week, newspapers reported that one clinic in Birmingham has used a woman's frozen egg for IVF because she had religious objections to freezing embryos.

"All of these things should be looked at before we actually offer, or suggest we might offer, this kind of treatment on a blanket basis to large numbers of women," Lord Winston said.

"There should be ongoing follow-up and it should be continuous; that is, we should look at a development throughout development, and not just for the first few months of life."