Fertility Treatments = Ovarian Cancer?
If you’ve been trying for a baby for some time now, and have been unsuccessful, you may find yourself asking the question … “How far am I willing to go to conceive a child?” Is it worth the risk of developing cancer? Research has recently indicated that may very well be a chance you would be taking if you considered fertility treatments.
A large study has summarized that certain drugs given to women during fertility treatments were twice as likely to develop ovarian malignancies, as compared to women who did not undergo treatments.
Details of the Study
The study, which spanned 15 years and was led by Flora van Leeuwen of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, discovered that fertility drugs meant to encourage ovaries to produce extra eggs increase the patient’s risk of getting borderline ovarian tumors and malignant growths. The women who underwent in-vitro fertilization, also known as IVF, could develop either cancer or borderline tumors, which are growths that have the possibility of becoming cancerous but typically do not.
The analysis was significant because it was the first of its kind that included a control group made up of sub-fertile women not undergoing any in-vitro fertilization. More than 25,000 women were observed of which 19,000 received IVF. From this substantial gathering of women, 61 malignant growths were found in the IVF, and of these 61 women, 31 cases were borderline tumors and the rest were invasive cancers. This proportion is especially high as compared to sub-fertile women who did not receive IVF.
In Vitro Fertilization
In vitro fertilization was developed by physiologist Robert G. Edwards, and produced the first successful “test tube baby,” Louise Brown, in 1978. The term in vitro, meaning “in glass,” was derived from Latin. The treatment is a process which involves fertilizing a woman’s egg cells with sperm outside of the body. Once the egg is fertilized, then it is transferred to the patient’s uterus, where it should attach itself and begin the pregnancy.
This is a major treatment that is widely available to many women, and it has proven success where other methods of assisted reproductive techniques have been unsuccessful. Many first-time IVF patients are filled with questions, and among the most typical are questions relating to what kind of risks are involved. Until now, no concrete risks had been associated with IVF.
Worth the Risk?
While further research is necessary, fertility experts all agree that this recent analysis shows an extremely high proportion of borderline tumors. Like Peter Braude of Kings College London, many health experts, dispute that the study might raise needless concerns among women undergoing IVF. He points out that if kept proportional to the rest of the sub-fertile women only around five to seven in one thousand women would develop a malignant growth or ovarian tumor.
Nonetheless, you may want to reconsider before admitting that you’ll “do anything” to have a baby of your own . . .
