Maternal and Paternal Infertility Disorders and Treatments and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Findings from the Study to Explore Early Development.
Laura A Schieve, Carolyn Drews-Botsch, Shericka Harris and 5 others
PMID 28900768WHAT IT FOUND
Maternal infertility disorders, especially in second or later births, were more common in mothers of children with autism.
Infertility treatments showed no clear link, especially among singleton and term births.
Key findings
01Mothers of children with ASD were more likely to report infertility disorders, with odds ratios from 1.4 to 2.6 compared with the population group.
02The associations with infertility disorders were limited to or much stronger in second or later births, with adjusted odds ratios from 1.9 to 6.3.
03Infertility treatments were not statistically significant. Mothers of children with ASD had 20% higher odds of any treatment and 20% to 50% higher odds for six of nine specific treatments, but confidence intervals included 1.0.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study compared groups and reported associations, so it does not show that infertility disorders caused autism. Mothers reported infertility history 3 to 5 years after the child's birth, so memory may have affected the answers. The response rate was low, so families who joined may differ from families who did not. Many treatment analyses had few exposed mothers, so the estimates were imprecise. The strongest disorder findings were in second or later births, which was unexpected, and the study could not fully explain why. The study did not know why women used infertility treatments, so treatment use may not mean infertility. The analysis excluded children with other developmental disabilities and pairs missing data, so the findings apply only to the remaining sample.
Declared interests
The SEED study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that infertility treatment causes autism. The treatment findings were modest and not statistically significant, and they weakened when the analysis was restricted to singleton births.