When in-vitro fertilization (IVF) was introduced a little more than 20 years ago, people worried that the children would suffer from physical defects. But, more than one million children have been born through IVF, and IVF babies have the same birth-defect rate as naturally conceived children, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
So, some researchers turned their attention to the psychological well-being of these artificially conceived kids.
And, they found there's little difference in emotional health between IVF kids and naturally conceived children, reports this wire story on Toronto's C-Health. More than 400 families from across Europe were followed from the birth of the children until the kids were 11 or 12. Some families had children naturally, some through IVF.
In most aspects of their psychological health, IVF children were the same as other children. But, in a few areas, they were actually better off. "Assisted-reproduction children were less likely to be aggressive with their peers than naturally conceived children, and they reported less criticism and rejection from their mother and father," says study author Susan Golombok, director of the Family and Child Psychology Research Center in London.
The researchers suspect this is because parents of IVF children may view them as special because they had such a struggle to have them.
