TY - JOUR

T1 - Long-awaited pregnancy

T2 - intelligence and academic performance in offspring of infertile parents - a cohort study

AU - Bay, Bjørn

AU - Mortensen, Erik Lykke

AU - Golombok, Susan

AU - Hohwu, Lena

AU - Obel, Carsten

AU - Henriksen, Tine Brink

AU - Kesmodel, Ulrik Schiøler

PY - 2016/10

Y1 - 2016/10

N2 - Objective: To study whether fertility treatment, subfertility, or pregnancy planning are related to long-term intellectual development.Design: Cohort study.Setting: Not applicable.Patient(s): A total of 5,032 singletons born from 1990 to 1992 in the Aarhus Birth Cohort were followed up to a mean age of 19 years. These children were born as a result of fertility treatment (n = 210), had subfertile parents who took more than 12 months before conceiving naturally (n = 334), had fertile parents who conceived naturally within 12 months (n = 2,661), or had parents who reported the pregnancy as unplanned (n = 1,827).Intervention(s): The children were followed up using questionnaires and information from Danish national registers.Main Outcome Measure(s): Parent reported school difficulties at ages 9–11 years, register-based school grades at ages 16, 17, and 19 years, and conscription intelligence test scores at age 19 years.Result(s): We found no evidence of school difficulties in childhood, impaired school performance in adolescence, or lower intelligence in young adulthood in multivariate analyses adjusted for parental age, educational level, maternal parity, before pregnancy body mass index (BMI), smoking and alcohol intake in pregnancy, cohabitation status, child gender, and age.Conclusion(s): In the longest follow-up of cognitive development of children conceived after fertility treatment or by subfertile parents conducted so far, this study did not show any association between pregnancy planning, subfertility, or fertility treatment and cognitive ability or academic performance.

AB - Objective: To study whether fertility treatment, subfertility, or pregnancy planning are related to long-term intellectual development.Design: Cohort study.Setting: Not applicable.Patient(s): A total of 5,032 singletons born from 1990 to 1992 in the Aarhus Birth Cohort were followed up to a mean age of 19 years. These children were born as a result of fertility treatment (n = 210), had subfertile parents who took more than 12 months before conceiving naturally (n = 334), had fertile parents who conceived naturally within 12 months (n = 2,661), or had parents who reported the pregnancy as unplanned (n = 1,827).Intervention(s): The children were followed up using questionnaires and information from Danish national registers.Main Outcome Measure(s): Parent reported school difficulties at ages 9–11 years, register-based school grades at ages 16, 17, and 19 years, and conscription intelligence test scores at age 19 years.Result(s): We found no evidence of school difficulties in childhood, impaired school performance in adolescence, or lower intelligence in young adulthood in multivariate analyses adjusted for parental age, educational level, maternal parity, before pregnancy body mass index (BMI), smoking and alcohol intake in pregnancy, cohabitation status, child gender, and age.Conclusion(s): In the longest follow-up of cognitive development of children conceived after fertility treatment or by subfertile parents conducted so far, this study did not show any association between pregnancy planning, subfertility, or fertility treatment and cognitive ability or academic performance.

KW - Fertility treatment

KW - subfertility

KW - child development

KW - intelligence

KW - school performance

U2 - 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.06.018

DO - 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.06.018

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27379706

VL - 106

SP - 1033-1040.e1

JO - Sexuality, Reproduction and Menopause

JF - Sexuality, Reproduction and Menopause

SN - 1546-2501

IS - 5

ER -