Required links for Alta Bates IVF Program results in national reports:
SART Clinic Summary Report: https://www.sartcorsonline.com/rptCSR_PublicMultYear.aspx?ClinicPKID=1959
CDC Assisted Reproductive Technology Data Report: http://nccd.cdc.gov/drh_art/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=DRH_ART.ClinicInfo&ClinicId=95&ShowNational=0
Disclaimer: A comparison of clinic success rates may not be meaningful because patient medical characteristics, treatment approaches, and entrance criteria for ART may vary from clinic to clinic.
The bar graph above summarizes the cumulative live birth rates per cycle start for the Alta Bates IVF Program for five years from 2014 through 2018 in five age groups of women using their own eggs on the left and for 3 years from 2016 through 2018 for women of all ages using donor eggs on the right. This consumer-friendly graph allows current and prospective patients to estimate at a glance their chance of having a baby from one treatment cycle in our program. The numerical data on which the graph is based are listed below:
<35 | 35-37 | 38-40 | 41-42 | >42 | All Ages | ||
Egg Source | Own | Own | Own | Own | Own | Donor | |
2014 | 3/8 | 7/15 | 4/14 | 1/15 | 1/7 | ||
2015 | 8/13 | 3/13 | 3/17 | 2/6 | 0/5 | ||
2016 | 3/7 | 2/2 | 1/8 | 0/3 | 0/0 | 3/5 | |
2017 | 4/5 | 4/9 | 4/10 | 0/2 | 0/3 | 5/7 | |
2018 | 2/4 | 4/8 | 1/7 | 1/2 | 1/3 | 5/8 | |
All Years | 20/37 | 20/47 | 13/56 | 4/28 | 2/18 | 13/20 | |
Live Birth Rates | 54% | 43% | 23% | 14% | 11% | 65% |
General principles underlying all calculations of success rates
All success rates are fractions, i.e. they consist of 2 numbers: a numerator and a denominator. For convenience the success rates are usually reported as percentages, i.e. fractions with a fixed denominator of 100.
The standard numerators are clinical intrauterine pregnancies and live births. We report just live births because they are the only outcome which really matters to consumers. Thus early “biochemical” pregnancies, miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, elective pregnancy terminations and stillbirths are all excluded from the numerator.
There are 3 legitimate denominators: cycle start, egg retrieval and embryo transfer. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Since egg retrieval is the defining and most invasive step of IVF, we believe that it is the single best denominator for reporting IVF results. However, the graph and table above use cycle starts as the denominator which is consistent with SART reporting and the Clinic Success Rate Reporting Law of 1992.
Differences in patient populations treated in different fertility clinics remain the major confounding factor in all reporting formats and render comparison of success rates across clinics and between a single clinic and national results unreliable. No reporting format is perfect but each approach offers a different perspective on a complex area of medicine. Cumulative live birth rate reporting distills a large number of data points into a single statistic which is accessible to all patients at a glance.
Our Results 2021. 12/6/2021