There is a new study stating that the use of fertility drugs double the chance of children getting leukemia. More precisely, children born from women who used fertility drugs to get pregnant have a 2.6 times increase risk of having acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). But the study goes further to state that even children who are conceived naturally after the mothers had difficulty for more than a year to get pregnant, had a 50 % greater than normal likelihood of developing ALL.  After further review, those mothers did use some type of fertility enhancement, thus linking infertility to higher risk of all.

Study leader Dr Jeremie Rudant, from the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health at the French research institute INSERM in Villejuif, Paris, said: 'It has always been hypothesized that assisted reproductive technologies may be involved in the onset of childhood cancer as they involve repeated treatment at the time of conception and or manipulation of the sperm and egg. And it is now established that a majority of acute leukemia have a pre-natal (pre-birth) origin.

Dr Rudant presented the results at the Childhood Cancer 2012 conference in London, hosted by the charity Children with Cancer UK.

The overwhelming desire to become pregnancy, leads many couples to fertility clinics, and spend millions of dollars every year on supplements to improve their chances to become pregnant.  Technically, infertility is defined as the inability to get pregnant after one year of trying (6 months if the woman is over 35). Most people believe infertility is a woman's problem, but in reality, 1/3 of the time it's a female problem, 1/3 of the time it's a male problem.  The rest of the time it is a combination of other factors. In my opinion, it's an equal problem between men and women.

Infertility causes:

  • Too low a sperm count (men)
  • Inactive or deformed sperm cells (men)
  • Blocked Fallopian tubes (female)
  • Uterine problems (females)

 

Risk of infertility:

  • Age - decrease abilities as we age, decrease sperm counts, ovulation cycles
  • Smoking - decreases blood flow
  • Heavy alcohol use or drug use
  • Sexually transmitted diseases
  • Weight issues - over or under weight
  • Stress - physical or emotional

The biggest problem with infertility is hormone imbalance. The body is complex machine, and the balance of the hormones determines fertility. This balance is affected by most of the risk factors I mentioned above. There are several great fertility websites available for more information. Womenshealth.gov is an excellent site for overview on this important topic.

Unfortunately, the study does not answer any questions, but rather makes further research necessary. As of right now, there is no known reason for this statistical increase in ALL. Hopefully, future studies will be able to answer this disturbing statistic.