What are the risks of IVF pregnancy?
With the progress of science and technology, IVF has become an option for many infertile couples to realize their reproductive dreams. Although IVF technology has achieved remarkable success, there are still some potential risks and side effects. This article will elaborate on the risks of IVF from four aspects.
1. Physical and psychological risks
First, hormone therapy used in IVF may lead to some side effects and physiological risks. For example, hormone therapy may lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which is a disease of ovarian swelling and fluid accumulation, and may lead to various symptoms such as dyspnea and abdominal distension. In addition, hormone therapy may increase the risk of premature delivery and low birth weight infants.
In addition, the psychology and emotions of IVF couples will also bring pressure and risk. Infertile couples may suffer from psychological stress, depression and anxiety after many treatment failures. In addition, too high expectations of IVF may also lead to excessive psychological burden of couples when the success rate is not high, or even marital crisis.
Although these risks exist, the vast majority of couples can overcome these challenges through psychological counseling and support, and finally get a healthy baby.
2. Genetic risk
IVF technology sometimes involves the process of artificial fertilization or embryo transfer, which may lead to some genetic risks. For example, for couples carrying genetic disease genes, they may pass on genetic diseases to the next generation through IVF technology.
In addition, because IVF technology requires manual processing, it may lead to a high rate of chromosomal abnormalities in embryos. Such chromosomal abnormalities may lead to miscarriage, termination of pregnancy or the risk of chromosomal abnormalities in children after birth.
However, modern genetic screening and embryonic genetic diagnosis techniques have been able to better reduce these risks. Through gene testing and screening of embryos, couples can choose healthy embryo transfer to reduce the risk of transmission of genetic diseases.
3. Ethical risk
IVF technology also has some ethical risks. For example, selective embryo reduction is a method to improve the single pregnancy rate by removing redundant embryos, but it also triggered ethical disputes. Some people believe that this practice will lead to moral problems of embryo selection and human intervention, because some embryos need to be discarded to obtain healthy embryos.
In addition, IVF technology may also lead to some moral and psychological challenges, such as the controversy over genetic modification and selective characteristics. The development of IVF technology will lead to more moral and ethical issues. We need to balance the development of science and technology with ethical standards.
4. Economic risks
Finally, IVF technology may also bring certain economic risks to couples. IVF needs many attempts and a long-term treatment process, including hormone therapy, egg retrieval, embryo culture and transplantation. These costs are not cheap, which may cause pressure on the couple's economic situation.
In addition, the success rate of IVF technology is not 100%, which may require multiple attempts. The failure of every attempt means that the couple needs additional financial investment. Therefore, couples need to fully consider their economic capacity and risk tolerance when deciding to adopt IVF technology.
summary
Through the detailed elaboration of this article, we understand that IVF technology has brought some risks while helping infertile couples realize their reproductive dreams. Physical and psychological risks, genetic risks, ethical risks and economic risks are all challenges that couples need to face when using IVF technology. However, with the continuous progress of medical technology, many risks have been effectively controlled and reduced. Therefore, couples should fully understand the relevant risks and make decisions under the guidance of professional doctors before choosing IVF technology.
