IVF Kids Grow Up Tall?

Even though in-vitro fertilization has been used to help couples bear children for several decades, studies about the lives of children born through IVF have been slow to appear. I have been particularly interested in whether there are differences in the health of IVF children compared with children conceived naturally, so I'm always interested in IVF kids' news.

I noticed a news tidbit on the topic last week: A New Zealand study has found that school-aged IVF kids are slightly taller than naturally-conceived kids of the same age. The study involved 69 children conceived by IVF using fresh embryos and 71 matched "controls" who were conceived in the normal way.

After factoring in parents' heights, the IVF children were significantly taller than their peers, by about 3 centimeters, or just over an inch, the investigators report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

What does this mean? It probably doesn't make a tremendous difference in life to be an inch or two taller than average. However, it may be a sign that hormones and metabolism are slightly different in IVF children. We will all be waiting to see how that will affect them in the future...


Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, online July 12, 2007

posted by Jessica Silver, MAOM, L.Ac.
www.amazinghealing.com