Abstract: Whether assisted reproductive technology （ART） increase or cause birth defects has not been determined. However，the causality of the association of ART and birth defects is probably multifactorial，which may be different with natural conception. The major concern is still whether the ART procedures such as ovarian stimulation，embryo culture media and culture time have a possible negative impact on the ART offspring. Concerns of imprinting disorders related to the ART procedures have also been raised. Moreover，diseases which cause infertility have been shown to affect the risk of birth defects. It is important to emphasize that the vast majority of ART infants are healthy. Future research should be devoted to finding the mechanisms of the association between ART and birth defects. ART treatments could be improved in ways that may lead to decreased birth risks and improved population quality.

Key words: Infertility, female, Reproductive techniques, assisted, Congenital abnormalities, Chromosome aberrations, Genomic imprinting