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Center for Reproductive Medicine
3435 Pinehurst Avenue
Orlando, Florida 32804-4049
Phone 407-740-0909
Florida Toll-free 800-343-6331

410 Celebration Place
Suite 205
Celebration, Florida 34747
Phone 321-939-1483
Florida Toll-free 800-343-6331

795 Primera Blvd.
Suite 1001,
Lake Mary, FL 32746
Phone 407-740-0909
Florida Toll-free 800-343-6331

Understanding Success Rates for In Vitro Fertilization

Patients often use national reporting of clinic-specific pregnancy rates to assess the quality of an infertility center’s program. Unfortunately, comparing these “success rates” can be complicated. What patients often do not know is that a report showing high pregnancy rates per cycle can either mean success – or something totally different.

To boost success rates, some centers may exclude less than ideal candidates or recommend in vitro fertilization to patients who would otherwise conceive with simpler approaches. They also can choose to exclude patients who have a less than ideal prognosis with IVF (such as patients older than age 35, FSH levels greater than 9, patients who smoke, patients with only one ovary, and patients with severe male factor infertility). Centers with fewer numbers of overall cycles may in fact be carefully selecting certain patients to help ensure high pregnancy rates.

Centers seeking the highest pregnancy rates regardless of the consequences also have a tendency to transfer a larger number of embryos and, accordingly, accept higher order multiple pregnancies. To an infertile couple this may seem acceptable; however, multiple pregnancies result in a higher risk of both maternal and fetal complications. Multiple births born to women at any age are high-risk births with twins being 4 times, triplets 10 times and quadruplets 13 times more likely than singletons to die within the first month of life.

Our Standards

At the Center for Reproductive Medicine (CRM), we adhere to the highest ethical standards, educating our patients about their disorder and recommending the most cost effective treatment. Quality for us is a satisfied patient who understands their condition and its treatment, feels that the best advice was given and that the treatment, if indicated, was attempted with the best possible medical supervision and service.

And our success rates remain high. CRM truly is a place “Where dreams are conceived” with the most ethical and compassionate approach.

Definitions

Comparing IVF success also demands a strict definition of terms. The term “pregnancy" can have various connotations, from positive pregnancy test to live born delivery. The term “biochemical pregnancy” indicates that the embryo has implanted with a rise in the pregnancy hormone (beta hCG) level with early loss prior to visualization on ultrasound. A “clinical pregnancy” must at least progress to the point where a pregnancy sac and fetal heart activity may be documented on ultrasound. “Ongoing pregnancies” are those pregnancies which proceed toward term, minus any miscarriages.

Pregnancy rates may be expressed per IVF cycle started, per egg retrieval, or per embryo transfer procedure.

The most frequent complication of IVF has been multiple gestation. Prior to the advent of blastocyst culture and transfer, approximately 30% of IVF pregnancies were multiple gestation of which approximately 25% were twins, 4.8% were triplets and 0.2% were quadruplets or more. With blastocyst culture and transfer of one or two blastocysts, the multiple gestation rate is approximately 25% of which 24% are twins and one percent are triplets or more.

Pregnancies with more than one baby represent multiple risks, including an increased risk for pre-term labor and delivery and could result in poor outcome with lifelong consequences for the offspring. These risks increase as the number of fetuses in a pregnancy increases.

Contact Our Practice

For a review of CRM’s most recent statistics*, as reported by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, please visit the SART website at www.sart.org. To schedule a consultation with our experienced infertility specialists, please contact our office.

* For a number of reasons, the most recent data for all centers are approximately two years old. According to SART, "A comparison of clinic success rates may not be meaningful because patient medical characteristics and treatment approaches may vary from clinic to clinic."

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