[Psychosocial child development after successful infertility treatment]

The long-term development of children after assisted reproduction, especially the physical, mental and social development, has attracted increasing interest. Most studies are focused on singletons after ART compared to those after spontaneous conception. A distinction is made between health, cognitive and psychosocial development. Studies report on hospital admissions of children after ART without a specific reason. ART children exhibit an increased manifestation of malformations, especially in the urogenital tract of the boys. The cognitive development of children does not differ fundamentally in singleton preschool children. Child behaviour and parental stress at the of age 5-8 years after ART did not differ significantly to those after spontaneous conception. In a small sample (n=87) after ICS some children were found to have an autistic spectrum disorder. Adolescents after ART were compared to adolescents after SC, no differences in psychosocial adjustment were apparent. Recent studies confirm that there are no fundamental differences in the development of children after ART in comparison to spontaneously conceived children.