CHARACTERISTICS OF MORBIDITY OF CHILDREN BORN USING ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Infertility is an important medical and social problem. Increasing numbers of infertile couples lead to an increase in the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), which is reflected in the increasing number of children born using these methods. Literature provides information on the specific features of neonatal and early postnatal diseases in such children, showing significantly lower health parameters compared to children born in result of spontaneous pregnancy. The issue of the long-term health status of children born after ART is still controversial. The first major meta-analyses have appeared quite recently permitting to reliably assess the morbidity of children born after ART. This review presents evidence that summarizes the current data on the morbidity of children born after ART. It shows the absence of a reliable difference in the level of occurrence of neoplastic processes, development of metabolic and psychiatric diseases. There is an increased risk of vascular-endothelial dysfunction, arterial hypertension, cardiovascular diseases. Contradictory data were obtained on the impact of ART methods on reproductive function: a decrease in ejaculate quality was observed in boys born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The presented data make it possible to form an idea on this issue, however, within the general morbidity framework. Nosological characteristics and the determination of incidence of certain diseases still remain a relevant task and require special large-scale prospective studies and observation of children born after ART throughout their lives to establish more accurate correlations.