Report: 5 million babies born thanks to assisted reproductive technologies
By
Michelle Castillo /
CBS News/ October 15, 2013, 12:08 PM
Christine
Namutebi, a maternity matron at Nairobi's Avenue Park Hospital, holds
two baby girls, the first children conceived through in vitro
fertilization in Kenya, May 9, 2006. /SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images
About five million babies have been born thanks to the aid of assisted reproductive technologies (ART).
The
International Committee for the Monitoring of Assisted Reproductive
Technology (ICMART), which represents more than 50 fertility
organizations around the world, announced the landmark figure on
Tuesday. The information was presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the
American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Boston.
"This
comprehensive report confirms that we now have over 5 million babies
born through Assisted Reproduction," International Federation of
Fertility Societies Board member Mr. Richard Kennedy said in a press release.
"More than that, it shows that half of them have been born in the last 6
years. The number of babies born through ART is now about the same as
the population of a U.S. state such as Colorado, or a country such as
Lebanon or Ireland. This is a great medical success story."
ART
includes fertility treatments like certain medications to trigger
development of follicles in the ovaries, in vitro fertilization (IVF)
and surrogacy, among others. The first ART birth took place in 1978, using IVF.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) estimates that 163,039 ART cycles were performed at clinics that
report to them during 2011. In total, 61,610 babies were born thanks to
the technologies that year. A little over 1 percent of all babies born
in the U.S. are conceived with ART.
ICMART said that by 1990,
about 90,000 babies were born worldwide due to ART. However, by 2000,
that number climbed to 900,000 children. Just seven years later in 2007,
more than 2.5 million children were conceived due to these techniques.
ICMART
estimates that since 2007, an additional 1.5 million babies have been
born in countries that report their data to them and another 900,000
were born in non-reporting countries.
There's been a decline in fertility problems in the U.S. from 1982 to 2010, according to the CDC.
While 8.5 percent of married women aged 15 to 44 in the U.S. -- about
2.4 million residents -- were infertile in 1982, only 6 percent -- 1.5
million -- had the same issues from 2006 through 2010.
Still, problems with fertility persist and even if a birth occurs, there's no guarantee a child will be healthy.
Scientists have been looking at new techniques to ensure healthier children. One controversial method, known as "three-parent IVF,"
allows doctors to implant the mitochondria of the mother into an empty
donor egg and then fertilize it with sperm from the father. This method
technically creates an embryo from three parents, although 99 percent of
the DNA comes from the mother and father, and 1 percent comes from the
egg donor. The controversial method aims to prevent mitochondrial
diseases, which are often fatal mutations that lead to failures in the
energy centers in cells called mitochondria.
Another U.K. child was recently the first to be born using an IVF technique called next generation sequencing,
which allowed doctors to screen potential embryos for diseases and
other problems. The information showed the potential the embryos had for
inheriting genetic disorders, chromosome abnormalities and
mitochondrial disease, mutations within a cell's nucleus that could lead
to conditions including heart disease, motor disorders, diabetes,
respiratory problems, seizures, and vision and hearing problems.
Other new methods being researched include in vitro activation (IVA), which stimulates a woman's ovaries to create mature eggs, and endometrial scratching,
which intentionally damages the inner tissue lining the uterus known as
the endometrium so it is easier for embryos to attach to the uterine
wall.
No comments:
Post a Comment