All Success Rates Are Not Created Equal

Your Success is Our Success

Perhaps the most confusing information presented on the subject of ART is the success rate. In their attempt to enhance their image and attract patients some clinics can make their numbers be almost anything. And yet the information these numbers provide often has little value for the individual patient. Each patient is unique in that they bring their own particular medical circumstance to infertility treatment. If one clinic routinely refuses to treat a certain type of patient problem, then their success rate cannot be compared “across the board” with other clinics‘ success rates. Some clinics will discourage, reject or refer the more difficult to treat patient. Or they will use a waiting list method with the easy to treat patients going to the top and the difficult patients to the bottom where they may languish for months. Other methods include telling patients they must go to donor eggs, and canceling cycles or converting them to IUI‘s (intrauterine inseminations) if a patient‘s follicle response is not at a certain level. At some clinics the cryopreservation of embryos is discouraged so that a patient must attempt a new, fresh cycle if they do not conceive (and statistically they will have an even better chance of conceiving with the second “fresh” attempt). This may also encourage patients to return more embryos as the others will be “wasted” otherwise. And finally, they may encourage patients to leave their program. At FIRST IVF we do none of these things. We willingly work with even the most difficult to treat patients to help them achieve their goal of having a child. Although we are proud of our success, our goal is to help our patients achieve their dream of parenthood, not to produce attractive statistics.