What do we mean by success rates? It is so important to understand clinic success rates and what they means for your treatment prospects.
Total Fertility publishes the HFEA success rates as these are validated and regulated. The simplest way to compare success rates across clinics is to focus on specific statistics.
We display each clinic’s IVF/ICSI success rates and include:
1) Births per embryo transferred
2) Births per egg collection
3) Multiple births.
To compare individual clinic success rates and prices; Search Clinic Listings >
Births per embryo transferred
National Average – Under 38 years – 31% / 38 & Over – 11% / All – 21%
The number of births per embryo transferred (rather than number of births per cycle started) is the very best measure of a clinic’s success. It allows you to make a fair comparison between clinics on a level playing field. The reason why this measure is helpful is that it gives you a clear prediction of achieving a live birth per embryo that is returned to the womb.
The number of births ‘per cycle started’ can be misleading and in some cases falsely inflate success rates, as some clinics may return multiple embryos to the womb. Although this is usually clear to interpret from a clinic’s multiple pregnancy rate it is not always transparent on all clinic websites.
Do remember, a success rate is just an average and it can’t tell you your individual chance of success (only your doctor can do that); but it does give a fair overall view of the clinic performance.
Births per egg collection
National Average – Under 38 years- 38% / 38 & Over – 16% / All – 29%
This rate shows the chance of success from all the fresh and frozen embryo transfers within two years of one egg collection. Whilst births per embryo gives you an indication of success rates for just one embryo transfer, births per egg collection gives an overall picture of success rates for a full course of treatment (which can include one fresh and a number of frozen transfers). This again is a much better delineator of clinic ability to achieve success for their patients.
Multiple birth rates
National Average – Under 38 years- 14% / 38 & Over – 11% / All – 13%
For some people, having twins may seem like a wonderful thing, but multiple pregnancies are much less safe for both mother and babies. That’s why the HFEA have set a target for all clinics to have a multiple birth rate of 10% or lower. As you will see this is not achieved by all clinics. High multiple pregnancy rates can be a reflection of how many embryos clinics tend to return to the womb in an IVF cycle.
IUI Pregnancy Rates
These are the pregnancy rates per IUI treatment using partner sperm. These tend to be much lower than IVF in general across all age groups.
Donor Insemination Birth Rates
These are the birth rates per donor insemination treatment undertaken. Same-sex or single women undergoing this treatment tend to have higher success rates than heterosexual couples with subfertility undertaking this type of fertility treatment.