A follow-up study on congenital anomalies in 2208 offspring of three years old born after luteal-phase stimulation.

RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the long-term safety in terms of congenital anomalies of a luteal-phase stimulation (LPS) protocol?

DESIGN

In this cohort study, 664 couples and their children born after LPS and 1308 couples and their children born after a short agonist protocol were recruited. To investigate the long-term safety of LPS in terms of the prevalence of congenital anomalies, the physical growth and the health status of the offspring, the follow-up was divided into three steps: preparations before follow-up, first-stage follow-up including four telephone interviews, and second-stage follow-up when the children were aged 3 years.

RESULTS

The total prevalence of congenital anomalies did not differ between groups. The detailed classification showed a significantly lower percentage of musculoskeletal system congenital anomalies in singletons (P = 0.020) and an obviously higher percentage of digestive system congenital anomalies in multiple births (P = 0.028), both in the LPS group. In the evaluation of physical growth and health status, no significant differences were discovered between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that offspring born after the LPS protocol did not exhibit an elevated rate of total congenital anomalies up to the age of 3. In addition, indicators regarding physical growth and health status were broadly similar between the two groups. These results have preliminarily confirmed the long-term safety of LPS. A subsequent long-term follow-up with a larger sample size should be carried out to generate more convincing evidence and more accurate conclusions.