OMEGA women's cohort
The OMEGA women’s cohort is a large, nationwide historical cohort study initiated in the Netherlands in 1995. It aims to explore long-term health risks among women who received ovarian stimulation as part of ART. The cohort includes over 30,000 women who started ART treatment between 1983 and 2001 at one of 12 Dutch ART clinics. A comparison group of subfertile women who did not undergo ART treatment was also identified, comprising more than 10,000 women.
All women in the study were asked to complete a risk factor questionnaire and provide informed consent for future linkage with disease registries. The questionnaire gathered information on their reproductive histories, causes of subfertility, fertility treatments, and lifestyle factors. Additionally, women treated between 1995 and 2001 were asked to provide toenail clippings for future DNA analysis. The cohort has been linked to several registries for further data collection, including the Netherlands Cancer Registry.
OMEGA offspring cohort
In addition to the women’s cohort, the OMEGA offspring cohort includes all live-born children conceived through ART between 1983 and 2011 at 13 ART clinics and two regional fertility centers in the Netherlands. A comparison group consists of children born to ART-treated parents who were conceived without ART, as well as children of subfertile parents who never received ART treatment between 1980 and 2001. In total, the cohort comprises over 89,000 children, of whom over 51,000 were conceived via ART, and almost 38,000 were not conceived through ART. Data from the OMEGA offspring cohort have been linked to the Netherlands Cancer Registry and Statistics Netherlands to facilitate research on the long-term health of these children.
Thanks to the participation of thousands of women across the Netherlands, the OMEGA study provides valuable insights into the long-term health effects of fertility treatments.
Website: https://www.omega-onderzoek.nl/
Contact person:Mandy Spaan