Does IVF increase the risk of breast cancer? 6 common misunderstandings about IVF

As reproductive assisted technology is gradually known by more and more people, it brings good news to infertile patients, but there are also misunderstandings, such as whether IVF increases the risk of breast cancer, whether ovulation will cause premature ovarian failure in women, and whether children born from IVF have IQ problems. Today, let's analyze people's misunderstandings about IVF.

1. Does IVF increase the risk of breast cancer?

IVF does not increase the risk of breast cancer. The latest medical reports prove that IVF does not increase the risk of breast cancer.

Some people believe that because IVF surgery will change the levels of specific hormones in women's bodies, such as estradiol and progesterone, for a short period of time, this treatment will increase women's risk of breast cancer. However, due to factors such as follow-up time, previous related studies have not reached a definitive conclusion.

In this regard, in fact, like normal people, women who do IVF may develop breast cancer if they have breast cancer genes or bad living habits. In addition, after many investigations, it was found that the risk of breast cancer in women who have undergone IVF surgery is not significantly different from that of other women. Generally speaking, the cumulative incidence of breast cancer in women who have undergone IVF surgery is 3%, while the cumulative incidence of breast cancer in women who have received other infertility treatments is 2.9%.

In other words, women who undergo IVF have a lower risk of cervical carcinoma in situ and breast cancer than normal people, so IVF itself does not increase the risk of breast cancer.

In addition, people have three misunderstandings about IVF

Is a test-tube baby your own child?

Some people believe that test-tube babies are "artificially created" in hospitals and are not the couple's own flesh and blood, so they are very opposed to this technology.

3. Both the husband and wife produce their own sperm and eggs

Whether IVF is your own depends on the specific situation. If you take sperm and eggs when doing this, then the child is the parents' own. This kind of IVF is different from normal pregnancy in that fertilization is done outside the body. After the embryo is transferred to the woman's uterus, the subsequent process is the same as pregnancy. So in this case, the IVF is your own.

4. Using someone else’s sperm and eggs to create something that is not your own

Some men have azoospermia or other diseases that make sperm unusable, so they need to use sperm from a sperm bank, which is usually called in vitro fertilization. In this case, if the test-tube baby can be born successfully, the man has no blood relationship with the child, so the man is not his own. If a woman has no eggs due to age and ovarian problems, she can also choose in vitro fertilization to help her get pregnant. At this time, for the woman, the child is not her own and has no blood relationship with her.

Will egg retrieval for in vitro fertilization lead to premature ovarian failure?

In fact, a woman's eggs develop from follicles. Although there is only one egg per month and more than 400 follicles in a lifetime, the number of follicles is very large. These follicles cannot grow and mature without sufficient hormones. Follicles can only have advantages after ovulation, and these basic follicles will face the consequences of apoptosis and metabolism.

In vitro fertilization ovulation induction is a process of utilizing waste eggs by increasing the FSH dose to make some insensitive follicles become sensitive. That is, drugs are used to pull the follicles that were supposed to enter atresia back into the growth queue, allowing them to grow further and reach the standards of mature follicles, rather than expelling future follicles in advance.

Therefore, ovulation induction treatment will not affect the number of the next ovulation, so it will not greatly reduce the number of eggs in the body, let alone early menopause. Therefore, IVF egg retrieval will not cause premature ovarian failure.

Test-tube babies have lower IQ than normal babies

Many people may have such a misunderstanding that the IQ of test-tube babies is not as good as that of ordinary babies. However, after decades of development, hundreds of thousands of test-tube babies have been born in the world, and early test-tube babies also gave birth to their own normal babies. After years of comprehensive investigation of the growth and development of test-tube babies, it has been confirmed that there is no significant difference in the physical and mental development of test-tube babies and babies born from natural delivery after birth.

In fact, in addition to the formation of fertilized eggs outside the female body, IVF is exactly the same as natural pregnancy in other aspects. In fact, human intelligence is affected by many factors, and pregnancy through IVF technology has basically no effect. Even if it is a natural pregnancy, it will produce children who die early and have low intelligence.

In addition, IVF selects the best sperm and eggs, and the quality of the embryo may be higher than many natural pregnancies. If the operation is done properly and pregnancy tests are done in time, you can also give birth to your own healthy baby.

Conclusion: IVF does not increase the risk of breast cancer, which has been scientifically proven. But similarly, IVF promoting excretion will not lead to premature ovarian failure in women, and there are still false misunderstandings about IVF. Infertile couples should look at these misunderstandings rationally, recognize the truth, do not myth IVF, and do not be hindered by these rumors, and act according to their own actual situation.