Risk of febrile seizures among children conceived following fertility treatment: A cohort study

Background: Studies have shown that fertility treatment in mothers is associated with neurological problems in children. However, knowledge about any association between maternal use of fertility treatment and febrile seizures in children is lacking. Objective: To determine whether maternal use of fertility treatment is associated with febrile seizures in children. Methods: All liveborn children in Denmark during 1996-2012 (n = 1 065 901) were linked with the Danish Infertility Cohort and the Danish national registers and were followed from one year of age until the first episode of a febrile seizure, death, emigration, loss to follow-up, or end of follow-up (December 2015). Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) with adjustment for potential confounders. Results: Approximately 16% children (n = 172 140) were conceived by infertile women, and approximately 3% (n = 34 082) were diagnosed with febrile seizures during follow-up. Compared with children conceived by fertile women, children conceived following any fertility treatment (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06, 1.16), following specific fertility treatment, for example IVF (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.05, 1.25), ICSI (HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.10, 1.32), and following fertility drugs (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00, 1.11) had slight increase in risk of febrile seizures, after adjusting for calendar year of birth, parental age, education, parity status, and maternal smoking during pregnancy. The associations were unchanged when children conceived naturally by infertile women were used as the reference group. Conclusions: Children conceived following fertility treatment had slightly increased relative risk for febrile seizures.