According to Newswise, the University of Adelaide researchers have found a link between the loss of a twin during early pregnancy and the increased risk of birth defects in multiple IVF pregnancies. The annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard from Profressor Michael Davies how the vanishing twin phenomenon has been linked to a nearly two-fold increased risk of birth defects in the surviving baby, along with a threefold increase in multiple birth defects.
The vanishing twin phenomenon occurs when there are fewer babies born than detected in early pregnancy by ultrasound, often reducing from twins to a single baby born. The University of Adelaide’s Research Centre for the Early Origins of Health and Disease said its findings have a potential of advancing the origins of congenital malformation after infertility treatment, and possibly in natural pregnancies.
The researchers say it is easier to study women undergoing fertility treatments because doctors know exactly when eggs were fertilized and transferred to a woman’s womb. The first ultrasound scans are carried out in six to eight weeks and followed by close monitoring with pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.
The study identified cases in which a fetus had been lost by comparing routine six-eight week ultrasound data which shows the presence of an empty fetal sac, and the number of actual babies delivered. The study also found that 7462 IVF babies delivered in South Australia in a 16-year period had only one twin survive, and out of those births 14.6% of babies had congenital malformations or brain injury.
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