Long-term follow-up of children conceived through assisted reproductive technology

Children conceived via assisted reproductive technologies(ART)are nowadays a substantial proportion of the population.It is important to follow up these children and evaluate whether they have elevated health risks compared to naturally conceived(NC)children.In recent years there has been a lot of work in this field.This review will summarize what is known about the health of ART-conceived children,encompassing neonatal outcomes,birth defects,growth and gonadal developments,physical health,neurological and neurodevelopmental outcomes,psychosocial developments,risk for cancer,and epigenetic abnormalities.Most of the children conceived after ART are normal.However,there is increasing evidence that ART-conceived children are at higher risk of poor perinatal outcome,birth defects,and epigenetic disorders,and the mechanism(s)leading to these changes have not been elucidated.Continuous follow-up of children after ART is of great importance as they progress through adolescence into adulthood,and new ART techniques are constantly being introduced.