IVF.

Research has discovered that some IVF treatments are causing a higher risk of birth defects in babies than would otherwise naturally occur. Babies created by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which is used in around half of fertility treatments in the UK, were more likely to suffer abnormalities.The research was carried out by the Robson Institute at the University of Adelaide and involved the examination of over 300,000 births in Australia.The study found that the risk of a birth defect was 5.8 per cent following natural conception, compared with 7.2 per cent following conventional IVF, and 9.9 per cent after ICSI. (Christian Concern.)