When deciding on infertility clinics most couples tend to favor those with high success rates to ensure their success. However there are many factors to consider when choosing a clinic and understanding the success rates improves the decision-making process.
What is the measure of success?
The CDC in the US measures the success of all infertility clinics according to how many procedures were performed against how many live births are recorded within those clinics. They are meant as a general guide for the public to understand overall efficacy and the possible difference between clinics in their geographic area.
Interpreting Success Tables
The CDC produces Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) tables for every infertility clinic in the US and their success rates as described above. However there are important considerations to understand that may weigh in your decision-making process. For example not all success rates denote a higher ability or technology than another clinic. The success of some clinics may be reduced by their acceptance of higher risk patients, such as older woman or at risk groups. Their successes although lower in percentage are considered within averages for those prone or at-risk demographics. The other thing to consider is that no success rate of the past necessarily constitutes future performance. The major contributing factor to continued success could be low staff turnover or internal policies to discourage older woman from their programs. The amount of cycles performed by a clinic can also contribute to their consistency in success. A clinic with lower cycles could have varying rates of success depending on patients and procedures, whereas a large clinic with thousands of cycles performed could average out their rates of success. The last factor that can have a large impact to a clinic’s success rate is woman who require multiple cycles before being successful. The law requires statistics produced per cycle and not per woman. This can skew a clinics rating, where they have had multiple difficult cases that took multiple cycles to be successful with a few woman who may have lowered their overall ‘cycle success’ but their ‘success per woman’ remains high.
Making Informed Decisions
When making a decision on the right infertility clinic for your situation, there are many factors that should be considered along with the clinic’s rate of success. Most clinics post their success story on their website, but if they do not, make sure to ask. Some clinics will provide success rates per cycle and per woman, which help allay concerns if their rating is lower than the national average. If the clinic’s success rate is above the national average, other factors should weigh more heavily in the decision process. These other factors could include the proximity to your home, cost of the treatments, perception of the facility and general perception of the doctors involved. Finding a infertility clinic that is registered with your health insurance provider may also be important.
No matter what infertility clinic you choose make sure to understand the issue of success rates before attempting contact. This will help you make an informed decision and allay fears if their success rate is lower than another clinic that is a lot more expensive. If the clinic’s average is below the national average, ask them to explain why. Knowing the answer will help you in your decision.
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