babies born through IVF are smarter but more prone to mental health problems than naturally born children, studies suggest.

Experts from the University of Helsinki followed 280,000 young people born in the year Finland from 1995 to 2000 until his 18th birthday.

Babies born using assisted reproduction techniques performed better in the classroom, and were more likely to drop out of high school.

However, they had a slightly higher risk of being diagnosed with a mental health problem – especially anxiety or depression.

The researchers said the better school performance of IVF babies may be due to the fact that richer families are more likely to afford the procedure.

The increased risk of mental health problems also persisted when children born through IVF were compared to naturally born siblings.

Parents who have undergone IVF may be more attentive to their child’s health and take him or her to the doctor more often, the researchers theorize.

More than eight out of ten couples become pregnant naturally within a year of trying.

Couples who have tried to become pregnant can receive NHS treatments such as intrauterine insemination (IUI) – when sperm is inserted into a woman’s uterus – and IVF when a fertilized egg is inserted into the uterus.

In the UK, some 390,000 babies have been born through IVF since 1991, compared with more than a million in the United States. The annual level has tripled in the last three decades.

In the latest study, the researchers looked at the health data of 266,925 naturally fertilized Finnish children born between 1995 and 2000, and the health data of 13,757 children born through IVF, IUI or ovulation induction.

The latter is when women are given fertility drugs to stimulate the follicles of the ovaries, causing them to produce multiple eggs in a single cycle.

The study looked at their school and medical records at the age of 16 or 18 years.

Results published in the European Journal of Population show that children with infertility had a higher average (8 vs. 7.7) and were less likely to drop out of school (2.4 percent vs. 3.6). less likely to leave home 18 (11 per cent vs. 17 per cent).

However, researchers pointed out that these differences between the two groups “mostly disappeared” when family circumstances, such as their parents ’wealth, relationship, and education, were taken into account.

Babies born with IVF are more likely to come from richer families who can provide their children with more money, time and mental investment, which will benefit their education, they said.

Private IVF treatment costs around £ 5,000 per cycle in the UK and $ 15,000 (£ 12,000) in the US.

A separate analysis showed that those who became pregnant with assisted reproduction were 1 percent more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.

Nine percent of naturally fertilized adolescents were diagnosed with mental health in late adolescence, compared with 10 percent of assisted infants.

The researchers said that while the finding is small in percentage, it is significant.

Hanna Remes, a researcher at the University of Helsinki and the lead author of the study, said the research team could not yet explain the finding.

However, she suggested that couples may suffer from depression and anxiety in response to pregnancy, putting their children at “higher risk of developing mental health problems”.

Alternatively, parents who have used assisted reproduction “may be more concerned about their children’s well-being” and take them to a doctor or hospital more often, increasing their chances of getting mental health problems and other illnesses.

The group noted that the world’s oldest IVF child is only 43 years old, so research on this topic is “relatively new and unexplored.”

But as assisted prevention has increased, it is “important” to understand the long-term consequences for children and young people, they said.