The Impact of Fertility Treatments on Women, Children

A partnership forged during a cab ride has resulted in a $6.6 million research collaboration that BU School of Public Health childbirth experts hope will shed light on how assisted reproductive technology (ART) influences health outcomes for women and children. The collaboration — termed the Massachusetts Outcomes Study of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (MOSART)—dates back to 2006, when Gene Declercq, an SPH professor of community health sciences, and Barbara Luke, a reproductive epidemiologist at Michigan State University and a research consultant to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART), were serving together on a federal review committee. Six years later they are putting those pieces together, thanks to a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Child Health and Development. The MOSART research team now spans six institutions, and it has begun an in-depth investigation of how in vitro fertilization procedures affect health outcomes for women and children.

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