IVF Increases The The Risk Of Thrombosis. Part 2 of 3

In addition, the enlarging uterus puts pressure on pelvic blood vessels, which can lead to clotting. Some women are advised to channel their movement to reduce the risk of clotting. Although it’s unclear why women who undergo IVF have a greater risk of clotting, Hershlag speculates that it could be due to fertility treatments that heighten estrogen even beyond levels normally associated with pregnancy.

The genetics of women who need IVF to conceive may also be a factor. Worldwide, about 10 percent of couples experience infertility, according to background information in the study. In IVF, eggs are removed from a woman’s body, fertilized by the man’s sperm and returned to her body.

Since the world’s pre-eminent “test tube” baby was born in 1978, about 5 million births have occurred after IVF. For the study, published Jan. 15 in the online copy of the journal BMJ, researchers compared data on more than 23000 women who became pregnant after IVF with nearly 117000 women who conceived without assisted technology.

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