From a biological point of view, a pregnancy resulting from in vitro fertilisation is no different from a pregnancy conceived naturally. Above all, the expectations of the couple who has taken this decision should be kept in mind, as they have had years of trials and a lot of expensive fertility research behind them. Recently, medicine has drawn attention to the problems that arise in children conceived by means of in vitro fertilisation. Low birth weight, prematurity, developmental defects are noted in these babies. Unfortunately, all this leads to increased morbidity and perinatal mortality.

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Prevention programmes have therefore been introduced for the early detection of possible malformations in the child. CFTR mutation testing is performed in men with azoospermia and severe oligoasthenozoospermia. This helps to reduce the incidence of cystic fibrosis and congenital vas deferens in the offspring. Another test is the karyotype of both parents and prenatal testing of embryos before transfer to eliminate genetic defects.