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Infertility drugs double the risk of leukemia in children
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Taking hormonal substances before conception that are designed to stimulate the ovaries more than doubles the risk of the child developing leukemia.
This relationship was first established by a group of researchers led by physician Jeremie Rudant from the French research institute INSERM in Villejuif. Rudant reported his own results at an international conference on childhood cancer that opened in London on April 24, 2012.
The study included 2,445 mothers and their children, 764 of whom had been diagnosed with leukemia and others of whom were healthy. All mothers answered questions about how long they had been trying to conceive and what medications they had been taking during that time.
It was found that children whose mothers took ovarian stimulating substances before conception had a 2.6-fold increased risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood leukemia, and a 2.3-fold increased risk of developing the rarest form of the disease, acute myeloid leukemia.
In addition to all this, it was found that babies conceived naturally, without the use of drugs, but whose mothers were unable to conceive for more than a year, have a 50 percent increased risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia. All this forced scientists to suggest that the problem is probably not only in the mothers' intake of hormonal substances, but also in their reduced fertility.
The study's authors are not yet able to explain the results. "There was a hypothesis that the rise in childhood leukemia and the widespread use of drug treatments for infertility were somehow related," Ruden noted. "But now, as a result of our study, it has become clear for the first time that the source of acute leukemia must be sought in the period before conception. It will be necessary to focus on a more thorough study of the relationship between the reduced ability to conceive in women, the drugs used, and the likely development of leukemia in children."
At present, ovarian stimulation with gonadotropin hormones in case of ovulation disorders is considered the leading method among known methods of treating female infertility. Traditionally, ovarian stimulation is performed before IVF and artificial insemination
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