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Increased risk of blood clots in IVF pregnancy

Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Women who get pregnant with the use of in vitro fertilization are at an increased risk of blood clots. Drugs used to stimulate the ovaries to produce more eggs than normal stay in the woman's body into pregnancy and may be responsible for the increased risk of blood clots, researchers from Sweden's Karolinska Institute have said.

According to the study published on the British medical journal, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is associated with an increased risk of pulmonary embolism (blockage of the main artery of the lung) and venous thromboembolism (blood clots) during the first trimester of pregnancy, the study suggests.

From the Swedish in vitro fertilisation register at the National Board of Health and Welfare information was retrieved mothers who had given birth after in vitro fertilisation. This register is now part of the Swedish medical birth register at the National Board of Health and Welfare and includes information on pregnancies after in vitro fertilisation since 1982.
pregnacy

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden therefore compared the risk of both pulmonary embolism (PE) and venous thromboembolism (VTE) in women undergoing an IVF pregnancy (23,498) and women undergoing normal pregnancy (116,960). Women were matched for age and time period (births between 1990 and 2008). The women had an average age of 33 for both groups.

The proportion of IVF women who were diagnosed with VTE was 4.2 per 1000 compared with 2.5 per 1000 of the unexposed women. Risk was increased during the first trimester (1.5 in exposed and 0.3 in unexposed). There was no difference in risk prior to pregnancy or during the year after delivery.

The researchers conclude that there is an increased risk of blood clots and importantly an increased risk of artery blockage in pregnancy after IVF. They say all physicians should be aware of these results as it is a potentially fatal condition and recommend that "efforts should focus on the identification of women at risk".

"Pulmonary embolisms are the most common cause of pregnant women in the Western world dying," says Peter Henriksson, professor of medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Karolinska Institute.

IVF has been used since 1978 for the 10% of couples worldwide affected by infertility. Approximately five million individuals have so far been born after IVF.
It is well known that the risk of blood clots is increased during normal pregnancy, affecting around one in 1000 in the early 1990s.
by Scancomark.com Team