Drugs/Therapy
Fertility Treatment Failure May Harm Woman's Cardiovascular Health [VIDEO]
The latest research revealed that women who failed to become pregnant after a gonadotropin-based fertility therapy for in vitro fertilization are at a higher risk of acquiring heart diseases. This may lead to heart failure or stroke, compared to women who successfully conceived via IVF.
In a report from the Medical News Today, experts found out the increased possibility of acquiring heart diseases due to a failed fertility treatment. The research team at the Clinical Evaluative Sciences and at the Women's College Hospital in Canada discovered a strong link between fertility treatment and short-term risk of cardiovascular diseases.
There are only a few studies that have managed to access the long-term impact of a fertility treatment in a woman's heart health, especially for treatments that have failed. The failure of the fertility treatment is already an indication that the patient is at high-risk for acquiring a cardiovascular disease. Fertility therapy can also lead to adverse cardiovascular complications like thrombosis, inducing vascular injury due to ovarian hyperstimulation and activating the renin-angiotensin system.
The researchers investigated a total of 28,442 women who had fertility treatments. The test subjects had undergone gonadotropin-based fertility treatment between April 1993 and March 2011 and were followed and observed for their heart health until March 2015, US News reports. Each of the women also had an average of three fertility treatments.
On the average of 8.4 years, it was observed that 2,686 cardiovascular anomalies were observed among the women who underwent fertility treatment. The women who did not get pregnant after a fertility treatment showed a 19 percent higher risk of having a stroke and a heart failure compared to women whose fertility treatment were successful. Women who gave birth after a fertility treatment showed 6 cardiovascular events per 1,000 women over a decade period after having a fertility therapy.
Further investigation will be performed to gather more evidence that indicated that fertility treatment puts a woman at risk to stroke and heart failure. They also advise women who had a fertility treatment to check how such treatments affected their overall health.
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