The graphs below show the clinical pregnancy rates (a clinical pregnancy means having a heartbeat detectable on ultrasound at six week’s gestation and this has a high chance (about 95%) of having a live birth).

The graphs also show the live birth rates of patients having treatment at Care Fertility with fresh embryo transfer using their own eggs and sperm (donor cycles and cycles with embryo transfer to gestational carrier are excluded) from 2020 to 2022 (January to December). The results are sorted by female age and include patients treated at Care Fertility Greenslopes using both IVF and ICSI.

From this it can be seen that despite seeing complex patients, the pregnancy rates at Care Fertility are consistently high and improving. This is due to a combination of great teamwork, attention to detail, individualisation of treatment and investment in equipment such as incubators.

Some patients have preimplantation genetic testing of the embryos particularly if the woman is aged over 40 years as many embryos are genetically abnormal. These embryos are transferred during frozen embryo transfer cycles. We have presented five years of data because Care Fertility consistently achieves good pregnancy rates and is committed to quality improvement by staying up to date with clinical practice and investing in state of the art laboratory equipment.

In 2020 the live birth rate for all Care Fertility patients per egg collection proceeding to fresh transfer was 39.0%, in 2021 it was 29.8% and 39.5% in 2022 (donor cycles and cycles with embryo transfer to gestational carrier are excluded). Over 97% of these pregnancies are singleton pregnancies. There are not many fresh embryo transfers performed in women over 40 years as many couples in 2020-2022 elected to have pre-implantation genetic testing.

The frozen embryo transfer (FET) clinical pregnancy (having a heartbeat detectable on ultrasound at six weeks gestation) and live birth rate from 2020 to 2022 (January to December) is shown below.

The results are sorted by female age and include patients treated at Care Fertility Greenslopes in 2020-2022.

In understanding your chance of success with Care Fertility it is important to remember that IVF success rates depend upon many factors including the age of the patient, lifestyle factors including weight and smoking, genetic factors and the causes of the fertility problem. It is important to note your individual results will vary depending on your individual circumstances.

Having a realistic expectation of pregnancy is important. Other statistics may help during your IVF experience are:

• One in eight IVF cycles is cancelled and does not proceed to egg collection.
• Approximately 25% of eggs collected do not fertilize normally.
• Sometimes embryos do not develop well and a transfer may not occur (up to 5% of cycles) and not every treatment cycle will result in embryo cryopreservation. This occurs commonly when the woman is over 40 years of age.
• Approximately 2% of embryos will not be retrieved or will not thaw after freezing.
• Chemical pregnancy (positive pregnancy test) per embryo transfer is often quoted as around 40 to 60%. Many of these pregnancies do not progress to have a heartbeat at six weeks gestation.
• Miscarriages occur in about 1 in 4 pregnancies which result from IVF.

These statistics mean it is often required to have more than one treatment cycle. Your doctor will advise you if it is wise to proceed with another treatment cycle if your cycle is unsuccessful.

Success is measured in different ways and Care Fertility prides itself on providing quality and patient-centred care for patients experiencing a stressful journey of infertility. This is provided by the medical, nursing, scientific and counselling teams. The feedback from patients attending Care Fertility is overwhelmingly positive and Care Fertility seeks to improve in every way it can so feedback (both positive and negative) is very valuable.

More information on interpreting pregnancy rates is available by visiting www.yourivfsuccess.com.au

Here are some national statistics from 2022 and updated information is available from the annual report of the Australian and New Zealand Reproductive Technology Database (ANZARD) available from the University of New South Wales website.

• Pregnancy seen on ultrasound at six weeks (called a clinical pregnancy) per embryo transfer is 32.7% for fresh cycles and 40.2% for thaw cycles (overall ANZARD 2022 data). Some of these pregnancies may result in a miscarriage instead of a live birth.
• Live births per embryo transfer are 25.6% for fresh cycles and 32.1% for thaw cycles (overall ANZARD 2022 data).