Success Rates

Oregon Reproductive Medicine success rates
December 1999 - December 2006

1,442 Oregon Reproductive Medicine babies born
January 2000 - December 2006

• 524 singletons
• 433 sets of twins
• 16 sets of triplets
• 1 set of quads

When you embark on infertility treatment you ultimately want to know what your chances are of taking home a baby. You are in good hands at Oregon Reproductive Medicine. We consistently have among the highest pregnancy success rates in the country. While success rates are certainly affected by your age, whether or not you have been pregnant before, and the quality of your embryos, perhaps the biggest predictor of success is the track record of the medical team you choose to work with.

The chances of achieving a pregnancy with IVF at Oregon Reproductive Medicine depending on female patient age are outlined in the chart below.

Before selecting a fertility practice it’s highly recommended that you study the success rates, published each year by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), for each clinic you are considering.

Rates for all clinics in the United States are published at www.sart.org/

NOTE: Our success rates may be listed under Portland Center for Reproductive Medicine, the name of our practice from 1989 until September 1, 2007. Because the success rates published are approximately two years old, our success rates may be listed under our old name.

While extremely helpful, the reports can be a little confusing. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

A “Cycle” is considered to be started once the female patient starts taking the drugs which stimulate the production of multiple eggs in the ovary.

Around 10 percent of all the patients starting to take stimulation drugs will be cancelled before the day of egg collection, usually due to a poor response.

Approximately 10 percent of patients reaching egg collection will not have an embryo transfer for the following reasons:

Approximately one percent of all egg collections will have a complete failure of fertilization and therefore there will be no embryos to place.

Some patients produce too many eggs and can be at risk for ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome. We would not transfer any embryos during this cycle because pregnancy would exacerbate the condition. We would freeze all the fertilized eggs and replace them in a frozen embryo replacement cycle at a later date.

Some patients do not develop a suitable lining in their uterus during stimulation and therefore we would freeze any fertilized eggs for use in a future cycle.

Pregnancy rates are quoted from each of the three stages: Cycle Start, Egg Collection, and Embryo Transfer The lowest rate will be from the start of stimulation and the highest rate will be from the embryo transfers.

Certainly, there are many factors to consider when selecting a practice. But studying the IVF success rates should be high on your priority list.*

What do success rates mean?

When you embark on infertility treatment you ultimately want to know what your chances are of taking home a baby at the end of it all. Your chances of success are affected by:

Clinics are required by law to report their annual in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles and subsequent pregnancies to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). These figures are published each year by an organization called the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). The figures are published two years after the cycles were initiated because live births have to be recorded. Therefore, for example, the figures for 1998 were published in 2000.

A full list of pregnancy rates from centers across the country can be viewed at the CDC website.

For the purpose of success rates, the IVF cycle can be separated out into three key stages:

Cycle start

Starting to take the drugs which stimulate the production of multiple eggs in the ovary.

Egg collection

Around 10% of all the patients starting to take stimulation drugs will be cancelled before the day of egg collection - usually due to a poor response.

Embryo transfer:

Approximately 10% of patients reaching egg collection will not have an embryo transfer for the following reasons:

• Approximately 1% of all egg collections will have a complete failure of fertilization and therefore there will be no embryos to replace.
• Some patients produce too many eggs and can be at risk for ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome. We would not transfer any embryos during this cycle because pregnancy would exacerbate the condition. We would freeze all the fertilized eggs and replace them in a frozen embryo replacement cycle at a later date.
• Some patients do not develop a suitable lining in their uterus during stimulation and therefore we would freeze any fertilized eggs for use in a future cycle.

Pregnancy rates are quoted from each of the above three stages. The lowest rate will be from the start of stimulation and the highest rate will be from the embryo transfer stage.

Because a pregnancy can obviously only be achieved when embryos are replaced in the uterus, the pregnancy rate from embryo transfer is a good place to compare center with center.