WEDNESDAY, July 4 (HealthDay News) — Transplanting just one embryo during assisted reproduction treatments reduces the risk of preventable infant deaths that occur just before or shortly after birth, which is termed perinatal mortality, Australian researchers report.
“The number of embryos transferred per procedure is the major determinant of multiple pregnancy and multiple delivery, which contribute to an elevated risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, and its [health consequences],” said Elizabeth Sullivan, from the perinatal and reproductive epidemiology research unit of the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
“These are risks in addition to those already faced by women being treated for infertility,” Sullivan said in a news release from the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.
For the study, researchers examined more than 50,200 births resulting from in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment. IVF involves removing an egg from a woman, placing it with sperm in a test tube, then transferring the resulting embryo to the woman’s womb. With ICSI, a form of IVF, sperm is injected directly into the egg.
The babies were born at more than 20 weeks’ gestation and/or weighed more than 14 ounces (400 grams) at birth. They found 813 perinatal deaths overall, which included 630 stillbirths and 183 deaths within the first 28 days of life.
