How Many IVF Cycles Should I Try?

Hi, this is Dr. Michael DiMattina, Reproductive Physician at Dominion Fertility in Arlington, Virginia. Three days ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article, “How Many IVF Cycles Should Women Try?” This was an article that examined work out of the United Kingdom, that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on women, between the years of 2003-2010. What they found was that after six IVF cycles, 65% of the patients had a live birth. Six IVF cycles – 65% had a live birth. Well, that was back in 2003-2010, over six years ago. The pregnancy rates today, I have to tell you, are strikingly better than they were back in 2003-2010.

The pregnancy rates today are strikingly better than they were back in 2003-2010.

I expect my patients to become pregnant with a pregnancy rate exceeding 50% on a bad day, every time we put a single embryo into them. The reason for that is, if you think back to 2003, did you even own a cell phone? If you did, look at the quality of the cell phone in 2003 or even 2010 compared to now in 2017 – very different; so is the IVF treatment and so is the success with IVF. Today, we expect pregnancy rates to range between 50% per embryo transfer of a single embryo to 65+% per transfer of a single embryo.

Today, we expect pregnancy rates to range between 50% per embryo transfer of a single embryo to 65+% per transfer of a single embryo

Six cycles of IVF? Who needs that? So, this is old data. I don’t think it applies any more in any good, successful IVF center. If they have pregnancy rates like that, they need to close it up, because it’s not very good. If you read that article, I am going to tell you that that is old news. The current pregnancy rates are much better than what they used to be.

The reason for that is the technologies have gotten better and our knowledge has improved. We don’t transfer fresh embryos at Dominion Fertility any more. All the embryos are frozen and then transferred outside of the stimulation cycle. It gives a much higher pregnancy rate. Furthermore, we test the embryos to see if they are genetically normal, using a technique called preimplantation genetic screening or PGS. We do this in almost all of our embryos because it tells us with 99% certainty that the embryo is genetically normal prior to putting the embryo back into the uterus. That was very rarely done back in 2003-2010. So, the good news today – IVF has gotten much better, pregnancy rates are well over 50% per embryo transfer.

‍Dr. Michael DiMattina, Reproductive Physician, Dominion Fertility, Arlington, Virginia