Understanding Fertility Clinic Success Statistics
We tell people that they should use the CDC or SART Infertility Clinic Success Statistics when choosing a fertility clinic, but we often fail to tell people how to interpret these statistics. Which ones are important and which ones can we ignore?
Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility & adoption education and support organization, interviews Dr. David Ball, Embryology Lab Director at Seattle Reproductive Medicine and Past President of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.
Hit the Highlights
- We tell people to look at the stats before choosing a clinic but it’s hard to find good information on how to use them.
- There are two places to find fertility clinic success statistics: CDC and SART. What are the differences between these statistics?
- SART now includes data on donated embryos and egg banking.
- How should patients use these statistics to select an infertility clinic or doctor?
- Should patients pay attention to any stat other then their IVF success rate for their age?
- How can this statistics be manipulated to show a higher success rate?
- Are clinics required to submit these statistics to SART? To the CDC?
- What statistics are most relevant to getting a healthy baby?