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Fact
Sheet: In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
- Infertility affects 6.1 million
American women and their partners, about 10% of the reproductive age
population.
- Infertility is a disease of
the reproductive system that affects the male or female with almost
equal frequency.
- Fewer than 5% of infertile couples
in treatment actually use IVF. IVF is usually the treatment of choice
for a woman with blocked, severely damaged, or absent fallopian tubes.
IVF is also used to circumvent infertility caused by endometriosis
or a male factor. Many programs also use IVF to treat couples with
unexplained infertility of long duration who have failed with other
infertility treatments.
- IVF is a method of assisted
reproduction in which the man's sperm and the woman's egg (oocyte)
are combined in a laboratory dish, where fertilization occurs. The
resulting embryo is then transferred to the uterus to develop naturally.
Usually, two to four embryos are transferred with each cycle.
- According to the latest statistics,
the success rate of IVF is 22.8% live births per egg retrieval. This
success rate is similar to the 20% chance that a healthy, reproductively
normal couple has of achieving a pregnancy that results in a live
born baby in any given month.
- Women under 35, without male
factor, who try IVF, have on average a 25% chance of conceiving and
having a baby. Some clinics achieve even better results.
- Success with IVF increases with
the number of cycles attempted up to four cycles.
- Of the 78% of pregnancies as
a result of IVF that result in a live birth, about 50% are singletons,
24% are twins and 5% are triplets or more.
- Children resulting from IVF
have the same incidence of birth defects as children who are conceived
naturally.
- IVF was successfully used for
the first time in the United States in 1981. Since then, more than
45,000 babies have been born in the U.S. as a result of this technique.
- One cycle of IVF costs an average
of $7,800 (1993 data).
- IVF has reduced the number of
tubal surgeries by 50%.
Copyright 2000 ASRM, All Rights
Reserved
American Society for Reproductive
Medicine
formerly The American Fertility
Society
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