Height advantage

A study of 2 children undertaken by researchers at New Zealand’s Liggins Institute has found individuals conceived using a certain In Vitro Fertilisation technique were several centimetres taller, by age six, when compared to naturally conceived peers. The height advantage was seen only in children born as a result of IVF process which used fresh, and not frozen, embryos. “We don’t know the reasons for the height difference,” research fellow at the Institute Dr Mark Green said. “… But can I suggest that it may have something to do with the hormones that are given to the mother to stimulate the ovary in fresh embryo transfer. “Fresh embryos are usually of a better quality than frozen embryos which may be a contributing factor to differences in height in the resulting children.”