(27-04-12) Ovarian cancers caused by IVF infertility treatments

by S. L. Baker, features writer

(NaturalNews) In vitro (which means "outside the body") fertilization, better
known as IVF, is the joining of a woman's egg and a man's sperm in a laboratory
dish. The fertilized egg is placed in the lining of the woman's womb and, if
the fetus continues to grow, a baby is born in about 9 months. Although a huge
money making part of the infertility industry, IVF has many downsides including
the fact it is enormously expensive. A single IVF cycle treatment can cost over
$12,000 and it can take many IVF treatments to achieve a pregnancy.

What's more, the success rate after spending all this money is only about 13
to 43 percent, depending on the age of the would-be mother, with older moms
having less chance of a successful pregnancy. On top of these drawbacks, the
drugs given for ovarian stimulation have a host of side effects, according to
the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including bloating, abdominal pain,
mood swings and headaches.

Now there's evidence of an even more potentially horrendous side effect to
this baby making technology -- ovarian cancer. Researchers from the Netherlands
have discovered that women whose ovaries are stimulated into producing extra
eggs for IVF double their risk of having ovarian malignancies later in life,
compared to women who never undergo IVF. The study was just published in
Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction.

The specific type of ovarian growths found that are most likely spurred by IVF
are known as borderline ovarian tumors. While far less deadly than invasive
ovarian malignancies, they are nothing that can be ignored. The researchers
found that of the 25,152 women with fertility problems included in their study,
77 developed ovarian cancers. Surprisingly, of the 61 women who had ovarian
malignancies in the group that had been treated with IVF, 31 had borderline
ovarian cancer and 30 had invasive ovarian cancer.

Unusually high number of ovarian tumors in later years
In a statement to the media, lead researcher Professor Flora van Leeuwen, who
heads the Department of Epidemiology in The Netherlands Cancer Institute in
Amsterdam, noted this proportion of ovarian borderline tumors was unusually
high. She warned that although borderline ovarian tumors have a low potential
to be fatal, they "would require extensive surgery and cause substantial
morbidity."

Even after the research team adjusted for factors that could confound the
results such as the age of the women, if they had already given birth and the
cause of their fertility problems, the long-term risks for ovarian malignancies
and borderline ovarian tumors were significantly higher in the IVF treatment
group compared with the group of women not treated with IVF. For all ovarian
malignancies and for borderline ovarian cancer, there was a two and four-fold
higher risk, respectively, in the IVF treatment group. In addition, although
not seen as "statistically significant," the bottom line is that invasive
ovarian cancer was also increased somewhat in the IVF treatment group.

"Our data clearly show that ovarian stimulation for IVF is associated with an
increased risk of borderline ovarian tumors and this risk remains elevated up
to more than 15 year after the first cycle of treatment," Professor van Leeuwen
said in the media statement.

The scientists are currently expanding their study population to include an
additional 8,800 women who started their IVF ovarian stimulation treatment
between 1995 and 2000, with an emphasis on those who have had three or more
treatment cycles. They are also adding 4,200 women with fertility problems
(dubbed "subfertile") who were not treated with IVF in the years 1980 to 2000.

"If we find out that women who receive several IVF cycles or large doses of
ovarian stimulating drugs are at a greater risk of ovarian cancer, then these
women would need to be informed about these risks when continuing IVF treatment
and possibly advised to discontinue treatment after three to six cycles
(depending on which number of cycles would be associated with the high risk of
ovarian malignancies)," Professor van Leeuwen concluded.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007279.htm

http://www.eshre.eu/ESHRE/English/Press-Room/Press-Releases/page.aspx...

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