Laterality in five-year-olds conceived by intracytoplasmic sperm injection, standard in vitro fertilisation and natural conception: a European study

• OBJECTIVE: To assess laterality in a group of European children conceived with the help of assisted reproductive therapy, or naturally conceived. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Five European countries. POPULATION: A total of 1525 five-year-old children divided into three groups according to conception status: naturally conceived; intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI); in vitro fertilisation (IVF) group. METHODS: All children were assessed using the McCarthy Scale of Children's Abilities (Motor Scale) with additional items using a comb, a spoon and an indirect measure was made of the parental handedness scores, using a questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Child handedness for drawing and writing. RESULTS: Observed handedness did not differ significantly between natural conception, IVF and ICSI in girls or boys, except for ICSI-conceived girls, fewer of whom were left-handed than the naturally conceived controls, 7.0%versus 12.4% (P < 0.05), however, this was close to the population norm of 8%. The degree of parental handedness did not significantly vary in the three groups. CONCLUSIONS: Laterality, as assessed by handedness, may be marginally less common in girls conceived with assisted reproductive therapies than with children conceived naturally.

Nyckelord

Adult

Analysis of Variance

Child

Preschool

Cohort Studies

Fathers/statistics & numerical data

Female

Fertilization/*physiology

*Fertilization in Vitro

Functional Laterality/*physiology

Humans

Male

Mothers/statistics & numerical data

Pregnancy

Prospective Studies

Risk Factors

*Sperm Injections

Intracytoplasmic

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)