PhD Conferral Mrs. Heleen Zandstra, MSc.

Keywords: IVF, ICSI, fertility, culture medium, follow-up

“IVF culture medium and long-term child development”

In an IVF treatment, embryos are grown for 2-3 days in a culture fluid. Previous studies have shown that a short stay in this fluid has an effect on the birthweight of the child born 9 months later. In this thesis, it was exammined whether the culture fluid has a long-term effect on the development of IVF-children. This indeed turned out to be the case: at the age of nine, children who spent several days in one medium as an embryo weighed one and a half kilos heavier than in another medium. Small embryonic changes may therefore potentially affect health in later life.