Summary

Eligibility
for people ages 4 years and up (full criteria)
Location
at San Francisco, California
Dates
study started
completion around
Principal Investigator
by Marcelle Cedars, MD
Headshot of Marcelle Cedars
Marcelle Cedars

Description

Summary

DESCRT will be a long-term study that both looks back in time, at successful pregnancies, and forward in time at early pregnancy and long-term as these children grow. Currently, there are limited data on the long-term effects of infertility and infertility treatments on children. There are some studies to suggest that these children may have altered metabolic profiles, but this study aims to be the largest study to answer this question.

Official Title

The Developmental Epidemiological Study of Children Born Through Reproductive Technology

Details

Over the past 30 years, much of the research and clinical effort in the field of ART had to do with improving outcome in terms of successful pregnancy. However, as these rates have increased, attention is slowly turning to focus on the health of the resultant child. Short-term health complications, in particular birth defects,have been well-described. However, even this "hard" outcome has been difficult to characterize as studies used different methodologies, varied age of detection, and frequently didn't have an appropriate comparison group. When underlying parental factors and infertility are included in the analyses, the association is substantially weakened or disappears completely. This exemplifies the problems with much of the currently available research regarding childhood outcomes following ART. While the health of children born through these technologies is of critical public health interest, and of personal interest to families, only limited data exist.

In order to evaluate the potential risk to long-term health of children conceived through assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and non-IVF fertility treatments (NIFT), rigorous epidemiological methods, appropriate characterization of the exposure, standardized collection of outcome data, and appropriate comparison groups are required. The proposed Developmental Epidemiological Study of Children born through Reproductive Technology (DESCRT) is aimed to carefully address these important characteristics.

Keywords

Infertility, Infertility, Female, Infertility, Male, Infertility Primary, Infertility Secondary, Infertility Unexplained, Female Infertility, Male Infertility, Retrospective, Prospective

Eligibility

For people ages 4 years and up

Retrospective arm

Inclusion criteria:

  • children conceived by parent(s) who sought evaluation/treatment for infertility

Exclusion criteria:

  • Children with chronic medical illnesses that prevent a study visit

Prospective arm

Inclusion criteria:

  • seeking evaluation/treatment for infertility

Exclusion criteria:

  • none

Location

  • UCSF
    San Francisco California 94115 United States

Lead Scientist at UCSF

  • Marcelle Cedars, MD
    Professor, Ob/Gyn, Reproductive Sciences, School of Medicine. Authored (or co-authored) 294 research publications

Details

Status
in progress, not accepting new patients
Start Date
Completion Date
(estimated)
Sponsor
University of California, San Francisco
ID
NCT03799107
Study Type
Observational
Participants
Expecting 3700 study participants
Last Updated