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Infertility

Assisted Reproductive Technologies & Success Rates

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) success rates are statistics published by fertility specialists in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that indicate how successful they have been with their infertility procedures. They are one important way to help you evaluate particular specialists, and the statistics can reveal some good information about how the specialists operate and what kind of experience they have. You should look for the following information:

What is the number of cycles performed?
An assisted reproductive technology cycle is defined as the process in which:
1. an assisted reproductive technology procedure is carried out
2. a woman has undergone ovarian stimulation or monitoring with the intent of having an assisted reproductive technology procedure
3. in the case of frozen embryos, embryos have been thawed with the intent of transferring them into a woman.
4. a cycle starts when a woman begins taking infertility drugs or starts ovarian monitoring.
The national average for the number of cycles performed is 163 per year. A high number of cycles performed indicates that the physician not only does a high volume of procedures, but also that they have a lot of experience and that they likely accept patients regardless of their risk factors or fertility status (not just likely to be good candidates).
How many "live births" (or delivered babies) are achieved?
The number of live births or delivered babies is shown in two ways:
1. per egg retrieval- a surgical procedure to retrieve or collect eggs in the ovarian follicles.
2. per embryo transfer - a procedure to transfer or introduce an embryo into the uterus after in vitro fertilization.
Both are shown because in a small amount of women, retrieved eggs do not make it to the transfer stage and, therefore, a live birth cannot be achieved.
Live Births per Egg Retrieval
The national average for the number of live births/delivered babies per egg retrieval is 22.8%. A higher than average number of live births/delivered babies shows that the individual physician/clinic has been very successful in achieving live births.
Live Births per Embryo Transfer
The national average for number of live births/delivered babies per embryo transfer is 25.1%. A higher than average number of live births/delivered babies shows that the individual physician/clinic has been very successful in achieving live births.

Reviewing assisted reproductive technology success rates can be confusing and sometimes misleading. Because fertility specialists report their success rates differently, it will be difficult for you to do a direct comparison. The Society for Advanced Reproductive Technology (SART) reports that many specialists also manipulate their data in different ways - some break it down by age group because the success rates are always higher with younger-aged women. Others manipulate their number of cycles by:

excluding cycles that are attempted and then canceled
encouraging patients who are difficult to treat to exit the program
only including the best patients in treatments - those who are young, who have regular menstrual periods, who have only a short duration of infertility, etc.

Therefore, comparing success rates between fertility centers may be misleading. Centers reporting "higher" success rates are not necessarily better. They may achieve their success rates because they only treat ideal candidates. Centers with "lower" success rates may actually be of higher quality, however, their success rates are lower because they treat "all-comers".