No association found between time to pregnancy and cerebral palsy risk

Zhu JL. Hum Reprod. 2010;doi:10.1093/humrep/deq206.

There was no association between time to pregnancy and the risk for cerebral palsy in children who were conceived spontaneously, according to researchers from the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

This finding suggests that underlying infertility is not a main factor for the increased risk for cerebral palsy seen in children born after in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Women who participated in the first interview of the Danish National Birth Cohort and whose pregnancy resulted in a live birth from 1997 to 2003 were included in the study. The women were asked whether the pregnancy was planned and how long they tried to become pregnant. Women who reported trying for more than 6 months were also asked if they had undergone any fertility treatment.

The researchers compared children born after 0 to 2 months of trying with those born 3 to 5 months after trying, 6 to 12 months after trying and more than 12 months after trying. They also identified children with cerebral palsy using the Danish Cerebral Palsy Register.

There were 90,203 children born in the time frame, of whom 165 were diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The researchers found no significant association between time to pregnancy and the risk for cerebral palsy. The risk for cerebral palsy was higher among children conceived after in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection: Their risk of cerebral palsy was twice that of children born after 0 to 2 months of trying, even after adjustment for multiple birth and preterm birth.

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