Children born through medically assisted procreation (PMA) may experience growth delays but these are caught up by adulthood, concludes a large study presented Thursday to the general public.
On average, from early childhood to early adolescence, people conceived by PMA “are smaller and weigh less (…) than those conceived naturally”, summarize the authors of this study published at the end of July in the Jama Network Open.
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"But the differences (are) reduced whatever the age, and are reabsorbed with age" to no longer be apparent at the end of adolescence, add the researchers, led by epidemiologist Ahmed Elhakeem from the University of Bristol.
Some elements could indicate that people born under ART tend to be overweight at the beginning of adulthood, but they are not strong enough to conclude as such.
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All of these results were obtained from a cohort study, a particularly strong type of research for examining the long-term development of people from childhood to adulthood.
It is based on the cases of more than 150,000 people, including 4,300 born through ART, collected in Europe and Asia as well as in Canada within the framework of various research programs.
Among the latter, there are two programs, called Eden and Elfe, carried out in France under the aegis of Inserm and Ined, which presented a series of results to the press on Thursday.
"The follow-up until adulthood of the still active cohorts like Elfe and Eden will make it possible to better document their long-term future", explained these organizations in a press release.