For many people, the dream of having children is not easily attained. Up to 15% of couples in the United States receive some type of infertility treatment. Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), such as in vitro fertilization, have been used in the United States since 1981 to help couples achieve pregnancy.

The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) is an organization of ART providers affiliated with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). SART has been collecting data and publishing reports on the IVF success rates of fertility clinics in the United States since 1989.

For the first time in 1995, SART co-authored its report with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and RESOLVE, a national consumer organization for infertile couples. The IVF success rates data for this national report came from 281 fertility clinics that provided information about the outcomes of all in vitro fertilization cycles started in their clinics in 1995.

Many factors influence a couple's chances of having a child using ART procedures. The national report presents clinic specific success rates, as well as overall pooled data from all the clinics reporting. These pooled national data are useful because they give a potential ART patient an idea of their average chances of success. Averages chances, however, do not necessarily apply to a particular individual or couple. Couples considering ART should take into consideration all the factors that apply in their particular case as well as looking at a particular clinic's success rates.

A variety of factors outside a clinic's control can affect a couple's chances of obtaining a pregnancy and a live birth by using in vitro fertilization and other ART procedures.. The most significant of these factors are a woman's age, and sperm abnormalities. Additional factors such as immunologic infertility, smoking (lifestyle issues), the diagnostic cause of infertility and the number of children that the woman may already have had, can also significantly impact the success rates.

For this reason some clinics may refuse to accept certain complex cases, or patients over a certain age, that will likely produce poor IVF success rates. At HRC, we evaluate the various patient-specific factors that can affect success and advise couples on their likely chance for success. We seldom exclude patients from our program based on their prognosis, but work with couples in partnership to help them make the decision that is best for them. Success rates can be reported in a variety of ways and statistics are not always simple to interpret. As a result, it may be difficult to directly compare one clinic's success rate to another.

The severity of certain cases may affect overall clinic outcomes and IVF success rates statistics. However, to a certain degree, IVF success rates are related to the expertise of a clinic's staff and the quality of its laboratory. HRC is gratified to report that as a result of its treatments, several thousand babies have been born to happy parents across the United States and around the world. Please review our ART statistics below.

HRC IVF SUCCESS RATES *
REPORTING YEAR: JANUARY 1, 2005- DECEMBER 31, 2007

IVF SUCCESS RATES USING DONOR EGGS *

Note: A comparison of clinical IVF success rates may not be meaningful because patient medical characteristics and treatment approaches vary from clinic to clinic.