7 facts you need to know about IVF success rates.

IVF success rates do not tell the whole IVF success story.

Many people and couples who face the prospect of having self funded IVF spend hours looking around aimlessly at IVF clinic websites. Through sheer desperation, they are drawn to the clinics with the ‘best’ and highest numbers on show.

Yet given how delayed the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) published figures are in the UK, this is all people have to go on – what the clinics ‘choose’ to tell.

Here are seven facts you need to know about IVF success rates:

1. Not everyone that walks into a clinic will end up with embryos, let alone eggs
2. The statistics for people who don't create embryos in a clinic is not a visible statistic
3. 'Pregnancy rates' will always be the biggest number yet it doesn’t represent the pregnancies that go on to miscarry
4. Some clinics routinely transfer multiple embryos to increase success rate
5. Some statistics are likely years out of date
6. Some clinics do not offer treatment to everyone as some patients are categorised as 'very poor outcome patients' and will lower a clinic's overall success rates
7. The real best practice statistic is ‘Live birth per embryo transferred’: How many babies are born from the amount of embryos transferred.

I'll leave you with a set of helpful questions to ask an IVF clinic about their success rates:

• Given your capabilities, what's the likelihood of generating viable embryos that could potentially lead to a pregnancy?
• When were your published statistics last updated?
• What is your 'live birth per embryo transferred' statistic?
• How many of your transfers are single embryo transfers?
• Do you select the type of patients you treat? Will you treat me?

There are more questions you can ask a clinic. 10 essential questions to ask during your IVF consultation.

I offer private patient embryology consultations. I can:

• Help people who are completely new to the IVF process feel more empowered
• Discuss the basics of fertility treatment and the many options available
• Review embryology treatment plans and results prior to starting IVF treatment
• Review previous IVF cycle embryo timelapse videos
• Review pre-implantation embryo genetic testing (PGT) results
• Help explore options when there is genetic disease in the family
• Discuss and explore donor sperm options
• Plus more

Send me a message if you'd like to set up a consultation.

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emma at emmatheembryologist dot com