According to new research, individuals who are gestational carriers (also known as “surrogates”) may be more susceptible to severe complications during pregnancy and the early postpartum period, hypertension during pregnancy, and postpartum hemorrhage than those who conceive naturally or through IVF.New research from ICES and Queen’s University.
Those who are not otherwise able to carry a pregnancy are assisted in becoming pregnant by gestational carriers, who also give birth to their offspring. It is unclear if there is a greater chance of serious health consequences for newborns and gestational carriers, both throughout pregnancy and after delivery.
One of the first significant population-based studies comparing health outcomes for three distinct methods of conception–unassisted, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and gestational carriage–has examined connected health databases.
The study was prompted by an increased in the use of gestational carriers worldwide and a lack of information about the impact of this reproductive modality on pregnancy outcomes, for the gestational carrier and the offspring,” says lead author Dr. Maria Velez, an adjunct scientist at ICES and at the time of this study, an associate professor in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Queen’s University. Velez is currently an associate professor and a clinician scientist at McGill University and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC)
The study, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, included 863,017 singleton births at more than 20 weeks’ gestation in Ontario, Canada, between 2012 and 2021. The groups included 846,124 (97.6%) who were conceived without assistance, 16,087 (1.8%) by IVF, and 806 (0.1%) using gestational carriers.