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. 2021 Jun;38(6):1481-1492.
doi: 10.1007/s10815-021-02170-9. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Sixth grade academic achievement among children conceived with IVF: a population-based study in Texas, USA

Barbara Luke  1 , Morton B Brown  2 , Mary K Ethen  3 , Mark A Canfield  3 , Stephanie Watkins  4 , Ethan Wantman  5 , Kevin J Doody  6
Affiliations

Sixth grade academic achievement among children conceived with IVF: a population-based study in Texas, USA

Barbara Luke et al. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: To compare academic achievement in reading and mathematics at the end of sixth grade and progress from third to sixth grade by children conceived with in vitro fertilization (IVF) to those conceived naturally.

Methods: This was a retrospective population-based cohort study of IVF-conceived singleton and twin children who took the 3rd grade and 6th grade public school standardized reading and mathematics testing in Texas.

Results: There were 6623 children with reading scores in both the third and sixth grades and 6374 children with mathematics scores in both the third and sixth grades. Mean (± SE) scaled test scores for IVF and control singleton children for reading were 1544.6 ± 3.4 and 1527.7 ± 1.9, respectively, in third grade and 1701.2 ± 3.6 and 1681.0 ± 2.0, respectively, in sixth grade; for mathematics, the scores were 1564.4 ± 3.7 and 1548.9 ± 2.1, respectively, in third grade and 1774.0 ± 4.2 and 1752.0 ± 2.3, respectively, in sixth grade. In multivariate models, singleton IVF children scored significantly higher than control children in reading and mathematics, averaging 17.7 ± 4.0 points and 20.1 ± 4.1 points higher, respectively, in reading in third and sixth grades and 17.8 ± 4.4 points and 25.0 ± 4.8 points higher, respectively, in mathematics in third and sixth grades.

Conclusions: Children conceived with IVF and aged 8-9 years and aged 10-12 years performed as well on third and sixth grade reading and mathematics assessments as their counterparts conceived naturally.

Keywords: Academic achievement; End-of-grade testing; IVF.

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Conflict of interest statement

Drs. Luke and Brown reported receiving grants from NIH during the conduct of the study. Ms. Forestieri, Dr. Yazdy, and Dr. Browne reported receiving NIH grant support from Michigan State University during the conduct of the study. Mr. Wantman reported receiving personal fees from SART, being a data vendor of SART, and maintaining the SART CORS database during the course of the study; and personal fees from NYU Fertility, MyEggBank, Prelude Fertility, Shady Grove Fertility, Northwell Health Fertility, and Mass General Fertility outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

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Fig. 1
Study population
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