Developmental outcomes in children born after oocyte cryopreservation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developmental outcomes in children born after oocyte cryopreservation - a population based cohort study
IRAS ID
232483
Contact name
Alastair Sutcliffe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 2 days
Research summary
Oocyte cryopreservation has become a rapidly increasing choice of assisted reproductive therapy (ART) in the world and new technical advances in cryopreservation are improving live-birth success rates. To date, oocyte freezing has mainly been used for preserving the possibility of fertility in cancer patients. However, there has been an increase in its demand as women are increasingly choosing to delay childbearing.
Cryopreservation can be achieved through slow-freezing or vitrification. Although vitrification has been shown to improve rates of oocyte survival, both methods appear to have similar obstetric and perinatal outcomes. Cryopreservation, however, continues to be a potential worry for long-term childhood outcomes. In addition to the risks seen in ART, such as prematurity, low birth weight and imprinting defects, cryopreservation may introduce further risks through the use of toxic cryoprecipitates. Unfortunately, there has been limited follow up of longer term developmental outcomes in children.
In particular, as far as we are aware, the longer-term developmental outcomes of children born through cryopreserved oocytes has never been reported to date. Through this study, we aim to investigate for the first time, the developmental outcomes of children (aged 0-5) born after oocyte cryopreservation. We aim to achieve this through employing well-established developmental screening tools on children born after oocyte cryopreservation as well as on age- and sex-matched children born after spontaneous conception. We will then compare the developmental outcomes of the two different groups to gain further insight into the potential effects of using cryopreserved oocytes.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0094
Date of REC Opinion
25 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion