Infertility treatment doubles the risk of heart disease within first month of delivery: Study

A major study has revealed that infertility treatment patients are twice as likely to be hospitalised with heart disease after delivery as compared to the ones who conceive naturally. The study by New Jersey's Rutgers health experts is based in more than 31 million hospital records.

But the hospitalisation risk was found to be a function of age. That is, the risk of hospitalisation due to heart disease among infertility patients increased if they were of more age.

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The work is published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

The study found that the patients who underwent infertility were particularly likely—2.16 times as likely as those who conceived naturally—to undergo hospitalisation for dangerously high blood pressure or hypertension.

"Postpartum checkups are necessary for all patients, but this study indicates they are particularly important for patients who undergo infertility treatment to achieve a conception," Rei Yamada, an obstetrics and gynecology resident at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

What does it mean?

According to the authors of the study, the results support standards of healthcare that now call for an initial postpartum checkup three weeks after delivery. But these standards are yet to be implemented in many parts of the world

Much of the increased risk came in the first month after delivery, especially for patients who developed dangerously high blood pressure.

"And these results aren't the only ones to indicate that follow-up should occur early," said Cande Ananth of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, who is the senior author of the study.

"We have been involved in a series of studies over the past few years that have found serious risks of heart disease and stroke to various high-risk patient populations within those initial 30 days after delivery—risks that could be mitigated with earlier follow-up care."

The researchers used data from more than 31 million patients who were discharged following delivery from 2010 to 2018.

(With inputs from agencies)