Children born after assisted reproductive technology

Since the birth of Louise Brown in July 1978 and the birth of the first intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) child in January 1992 many couples with longstanding female-factor or male-factor infertility can be helped to overcome their infertility resulting in a delivery and birth of a child. The final and ultimate goal of all infertility treatments has been to give the large population of infertile couples a chance to fulfil their childwish and experience the happiness of having a healthy child. Major advances have been made in the different treatment protocols for infertility during the last 25 years. It is, however, surprising that only a limited number of studies have been carried out assessing the health of the children born after ART. In this review we shall comment on the limitations of follow-up studies on ART children and we shall review existing data on the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and ICSI pregnancies. The most important outcome data consist of information on minor and major congenital malformations obtained prenatally or after birth, as well as on the further development of the children.