IVF babies 'grow to be more confident'

Babies born using IVF treatment could be more confident than those that are naturally conceived, a new study suggests. It is the first time artificial conception methods have been shown to affect personality, after research on mice by a team at the University of Pennsylvania.

Experts have called for more work to discover if similar effects occur in human IVF treatments. The study found that IVF mice moved around more and were less anxious, spending more time in raised, open spaces. However, they also developed memory problems, struggling to remember learned locations.

Dr Richard Schultz, who led the team, said: "The effects we saw were subtle but significant," adding that the changes may have occurred because embryos were stored. He believes if similar effects are found in humans, tissue culture methods could be altered to keep embryonic development as normal as possible.

At present, some clinics reimplant embryos after two or three days but others wait longer, arguing that older embryos are more likely to survive.

"Until we do more research, it's probably best to culture human embryos for as short a time as possible," said Dr Schultz.

Reproductive biologist Simon Fishel, of the Park Hospital, Nottingham, said: "There's nothing anecdotally to suggest these children behave any differently. But if humans are affected and become more confident it could even be a positive thing."

However, Dr Geraldine Hartshorne, of the University of Warwick, said: "Our environment plays such a huge part in our personality that testing any effects would be extremely hard."