News archive

Children of a parent with alcohol or drug use disorder have a greater risk of intellectual disability, even if the problem only lies with the father, researchers from Karolinska Institutet report. According to the study, which is published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, preventive measures should be directed at both parents.

Infants whose mothers have used snus (a moist oral tobacco product) during pregnancy run three times the risk of sudden infant death, according to a comprehensive registry study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Pediatric Research. The risk was much lower if the mother had stopped taking snus before the first antenatal visit. The researchers conclude that all types of nicotine products should be avoided during pregnancy.

Dads are more likely to feel depressed when their kids are toddlers if their coparenting relationships are poor in the months after birth, a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows. The findings are published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Nataliia Petryk ran a private clinic in Kyiv helping women give birth when she was forced to flee Ukraine when Russia invaded her country. By following a call by the European Research Council for EU teams to take in Ukrainian scientists, she is now able to conduct research to prevent miscarriage at Karolinska Institutet. Her experience is an example of how science knows no borders.

The risk of complications in assisted reproduction is higher when two embryos are transferred, instead of one embryo. This has been shown in a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, which included all births in Sweden 2007-2017.

Researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Karolinska Institutet are part of a collaborative study that has made progress in the testing of an innovative contraceptive method, a vaginal gel, that preclinical studies have shown prevents sperm from reaching the egg. The results are described in a paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

An observational study at Karolinska Institutet shows that babies suffering oxygen-deficiency complications at birth are almost twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease during childhood and early adulthood as those without such complications. Still, the absolute risk of cardiovascular disease is very low in young age. The findings are published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.

Infections in pregnant women have been linked to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, in the child later in life. But it does not seem to be the infections themselves that cause autism, researchers from Karolinska Institutet show in a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

A new study published in The Lancet shows that medical abortion can be carried out both safely and effectively via telemedicine, without a routine ultrasound examination. The study, which is a collaboration between researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Cape Town in South Africa, highlights the opportunities to provide safe and effective abortion services in low-resource settings.

Women with a breast cancer diagnosis undergoing procedures for fertility preservation are not at increased risk of recurrence of the disease or disease-specific mortality. This has been shown in a study by Karolinska Institutet that followed the participants for five years on average. The results, published in the journal JAMA Oncology, could in the future provide safety and new hope to women who want to preserve their fertility after cancer treatment with chemotherapy.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Bristol have investigated the relationship between mode of delivery and sexual well-being several years after childbirth. The study, published in the journal BJOG, showed no difference in sexual frequency or sexual satisfaction in women who were delivered vaginally or by caesarean section.

To track and analyze caesarean section trends and thus improve maternity care, the Robson classification is used worldwide. A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows differences between Sweden and Canada, and that the classification system can be further developed to take into account more important variables. The study, published in PLOS Medicine, may contribute to improved and more equal maternity care in the future.

Vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy is not associated with a higher risk of pregnancy complications, according to a large-scale registry study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health published in the journal JAMA.

Women who have had one ovary surgically removed (unilateral oophorectomy) are less likely to become pregnant after in vitro fertilisation and give birth to fewer babies than women with both ovaries. That is according to an extensive meta-analysis published in the journal Fertility and Sterility by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

When she was 14 years old Jessica Strid was treated for cancer and was told that it would be difficult for her to get pregnant. Today she has two children. ”I am very grateful”, she says.

Many young people whose fertility have been impaired due to cancer treatment can today be helped to become parents. Kenny Rodriguez-Wallberg, Adjunct Professor at the Department of Oncology and Pathology at Karolinska Institutet and Senior Consultant at Karolinska University Hospital, answers six common questions.

According to the WHO, almost 50 million couples worldwide are involuntarily childless while demand for assisted fertilisation is expected to grow as treatments have become both more effective and more widely accessible. Read the first article from a in-depth series about infertility from KI’s Swedish popular science magazine.

The treatment of serious prodromal cervical cancer, CIN3, can cause problems during later pregnancy amongst women of fertile age. A new registry study from Karolinska Institutet shows a higher risk of several adverse pregnancy outcomes after such treatment, but the risks have declined over time and the increased risk of infant death no longer exists. The study, which included a large number of births in Sweden over a 46-year period, is published in The Annals of Internal Medicine.

Use of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) does not lead to poorer mental health in children across adolescence and young adulthood, according to a large observational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found a slightly higher risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder for those born after ART but this was explained by parental background factors.

Children and young people whose mothers had a BMI greater than 30 during early pregnancy are at an increased risk of fatty liver disease. This is shown in a register-based study from Karolinska Institutet and Harvard University published in the journal Journal of Hepatology. As obesity rates increase also in women at a child-bearing age, more and more young people are at risk of developing fatty liver disease, the researchers say.

With the development of more effective treatment for childhood cancer, fertility preservation efforts have become routine at many centers. At the same time, there have been questions about the risks of relapse when re-transplanting ovarian tissue. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet report on a woman who is expecting her second child after being treated for leukaemia as a teenager. This study, published in Haematologica, may be of great importance to many young women and their families.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet found industrial chemicals in the organs of fetuses conceived decades after many countries had banned the substances. In a study published in the journal Chemosphere, the researchers urge decision makers to consider the combined impact of the mix of chemicals that accumulate in people and nature.

Continuous skin-to-skin contact starting immediately after delivery even before the baby has been stabilised can reduce mortality by 25 per cent in infants with a very low birth weight. This according to a study in low- and middle-income countries coordinated by the WHO on the initiative of researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Public Health Agency of Sweden have studied newborn babies whose mothers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy or childbirth. The results show that although babies born of test-positive mothers are more likely to be born early, extremely few were infected with COVID-19. The study, which is published in the esteemed journal JAMA, supports the Swedish recommendation not to separate mother and baby after delivery.

In a study published in JAMA researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have examined the association between a positive SARS-CoV-2 test during pregnancy and complications in mothers and their newborn babies. Almost two out of three pregnant women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were asymptomatic and the researchers found no higher prevalence of complications during delivery or of ill-health in the neonates. However, preeclampsia was more common in infected women.

Modafinil is used to treat conditions such as narcolepsy. Reports have associated the drug with an increased risk of malformation in babies born to mothers who had taken it while pregnant. Now, a large registry study involving over two million pregnant women in Sweden and Norway shows that there is no such association. The study, which is published in JAMA, was conducted by researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Two recent studies were unable to rule out that H1N1 (“swine flu”) vaccination (“Pandemrix”) and seasonal influenza vaccination given to pregnant women might be associated with autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. Now, a large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, refutes any such association.

Daughters of women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) are five times more likely to be diagnosed with PCOS as adults, and the generational transmission is driven by high androgen levels during pregnancy, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report. Their results, which are based on register-based and clinical studies as well as transgenerational animal studies, are published in Nature Medicine.

Children are more likely to have higher systolic blood pressure by age six if their mom used the Swedish powdered tobacco product snus during pregnancy. This according to a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Children born to women who underwent gastric bypass surgery before becoming pregnant had a lower risk of major birth defects than children born to women who had severe obesity at the start of their pregnancy. That’s according to a matched cohort study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Örebro University published in the scientific journal JAMA. The findings indicate that weight-loss and improved blood sugar control could reduce the risk of major birth defects.

Pregnant women with type 1 diabetes are at increased risk of delivering their baby prematurely. The risk increases as blood sugar levels rise, however women who maintain the recommended levels also risk giving birth prematurely. These are the findings from researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden, published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

In a recent publication in Molecular Human Reproduction, researchers at OnkPat could identify the specific proteome profiling of mouse ovarian follicles at three different developmental stages. To do that, the researchers isolated the follicles and cultured them in vitro. This is the first protein mapping of ovarian follicles ever published.

Acupuncture has no effect on involuntary childlessness caused by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most effective treatment for PCOS being the drug chlomiphene, a joint international study conducted at Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, China, reports. The study, which involved the participation of researchers at Karolinska Institutet, is published in JAMA.

A recently published study from the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) at Karolinska Institutet shows that exposure to noise during pregnancy can damage the child’s hearing, with an 80 percent increase in risk in occupational environments with particularly high decibel levels. The results strongly indicate that pregnant women should not be exposed to loud noise.