Assisted reproduction technique like IVF has blessed many childless couples to fulfil their dreams of having their own baby. IVF is considered too advanced and safe method of artificial conception under the controlled conditions of the lab. Experts deny for as such side effects of this technique however many have the misconception about this method that it can cause or increase the risk of breast or womb cancer in females. But really is it true?
Answer of the above question is big ‘No’. According to results of research conducted, advanced treatments like IVF do not increase the chances of cancer for females.
Studies have not found any direct link between the increases in the chances of cancer with infertility treatments. However, there can be some chances of increase in the risk of non-invasive breast cancer in which cancer tissue does not grow in normal tissues and do not get spread throughout the body. This risk of non-invasive cancer is associated with the number of treatment cycles a woman is having even the study demonstrate that risk of ovarian tumors is also associated with the other known factors for the development of this type of cancer.
A big study was conducted by Professor Alastair Sutcliffe at University College London with his team to study the risk of cancer associated with fertility treatments. He conducted the study by considering the data of 250,000 women who had taken assisted fertility treatment in the years 1991 to 2010 and this data is studied by linking it to the data of cancer patients obtained from national cancer records
In the study, the average age of women who were considering the assisted fertility treatments was 34.5 and women were having 1.8 treatment cycles at their average age. In the study, it was observed that 44% of women were having infertility issue and 33% of men were having infertility due to malefactors and rest 19% were having fertility issue due to unexplained reasons.
As such there was not any link of fertility treatments and cancer but if there is the use of high levels of hormones in the assisted reproduction techniques then there can be seen the slight increase in the risk of having cancer in women. Even study conducted in 2015 showed that chances of ovarian cancer get the increase in the women by the third if they go for infertility treatments. However the study of related factors like medical history, age or infertility issue is also essential to reach any point.