Long-term growth has been poorly investigated in boys and girls born by parents receiving fertility treatment. This study aimed to investigate the growth of children born following fertility treatment up to adulthood hypothesizing comparable growth in children born by parents receiving fertility treatment or by subfertile parents conceiving spontaneously to that of children spontaneously conceived by fertile parents.
In this historical long-term follow-up study the study population consisted of 4151 singletons born at term in the Aarhus Birth Cohort between 1990 and 1992. Parental lifestyle- and sociodemographic characteristics together with multiple measurements of weight and height were collected up to 20 years of age (6.1% of children contributed with at least one measurement for height or weight at age 20). The main outcome was difference in z-score for height (m) and weight (kg) between children conceived spontaneously (reference) and children conceived following fertility treatment, children conceived spontaneously by subfertile parents or unplanned. Results were adjusted for pre-pregnancy maternal and paternal body mass index, maternal educational level, smoking during pregnancy, maternal age, and parity.
Singletons conceived following fertility treatment (n=164 (4.0%)) or by subfertile parents (n=271 (6.5%)) had comparable magnitude of weight estimates to children conceived spontaneously (difference in z-score per year 0.0148 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.0026 – 0.0270) and 0.0069 (95%CI -0.0028 – 0.0165), respectively). Height estimates was also comparable between groups of children conceived following fertility treatment or by subfertile parents (difference in z-score per year 0.0022 (95% CI -0.0075 – 0.0119) compared to children conceived spontaneously (difference in z-score per year -0.0026 (95% CI -0.0103 – 0.0052). From the beginning of adolescence, we found lower weight for children born to subfertile parents and to parents receiving fertility treatment compared to spontaneously conceived children.
The main finding was equal long-term growth for children born at term by parents who received fertility treatment or parents waiting more than 12 months to conceive compared to spontaneously conceived children.

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