Judging fertility clinics abroad on the basis of their success rates is the most popular way of choosing an ideal place for IVF treatment – but unfortunately not the wisest one.
In fact, it would be the best to approach the clinics with limited trust and increased understanding of IVF procedures. Patients should be aware that the success of IVF treatment is the sum of different factors and circumstances, only few of which depend on the clinic itself. The latter are surely the experience and professionalism of the medical staff as well as offered IVF treatments that allow particular types of patients (with either lower or higher chances of a successful pregnancy).
However, in majority of cases it is a patient’s individual situation, their condition and medical history that influence the result of the treatment. A patient’s age, genetic factors or various reasons for infertility play a crucial role in determining the IVF success.
It is highly advisable to do your own research prior to choosing the best IVF clinic. Analyse all medical and psychological aspects that the IVF treatment process entails and decide whether you’re financially ready to do it.
Misleading IVF success rates
However, although the data comes from a public report, you should still treat it with a grain of salt. Why? Firstly, remember that clinics often use the so-called “creative” ways of measuring their success rates. They often try to show the highest numbers because they know that most patients make decisions based on these values. In this case, the numbers presented by the clinics will differ significantly from the national average – they will be much higher. There is nothing wrong with the fact that an IVF clinic calculates own success rate according to its own algorithm. The only consequence that you should be aware of is a much more expensive treatment than you would expect after the first contact with the clinic.
Secondly, many clinics have higher success rates simply because the following data is the average of all clinics. In such a compilation, there are both clinics with worse results (which does not mean they’re worse centres!) and the ones that perform better.
Please note that IVF refund programs – that are gaining popularity – may “promise” a 100% success rate or a live birth. Such packages are “financial programs” that involve risk-sharing between the clinic and other patients. So from a medical perspective, they can’t guarantee anything (e.g success rates, pregnancy, live birth) except the money-back guarantee – “a refund” based on the expected outcome. That’s why they are often called the IVF money back guarantee programs.
IVF with own eggs – success rates
The effectiveness of IVF treatment with own eggs will vary significantly depending on the age of a female patient. Additionally, there are many other parameters that influence the treatment effectiveness. These are, among others:
- Age of a woman
- BMI,
- the quality and the number of oocytes collected
- the quality of male partner’s sperm.
That is why it is so important to always ask about your own individual chances and not about the average treatment effectiveness in the IVF clinic. When publishing data on the treatment effectiveness, clinics, in the best case, take different patients’ age groups into account. However, this might not be enough for you when comparing the success rates between clinics.
| IVF with own eggs in popular countries in Europe* | <34 | 35-39 | ≥40 |
| Spain | 25.8 | 23.2 | 11.7 |
| Portugal | 26.6 | 21.2 | 14.3 |
| Czech Republic | 29.7 | 21.6 | 8.9 |
| North Cyprus** | no data | no data | no data |
| Greece | 30.4 | 22.8 | 9.7 |
| Ukraine | 25.4 | 22.7 | 14.1 |
| Poland | 30.5 | 25.9 | 12.9 |
| Russia | 30.3 | 24.1 | 12 |
| Latvia | 29.4 | 33.6 | 20.7 |
| Denmark | 30.4 | 20.2 | 12.3 |
Supplementary Table SX Aspirations, pregnancy and delivery rates by age distribution (years) of women treated with ICSI in 2017.
Pregnancies per embryo transfer.
**North Cyprus is the self–proclaimed state recognised only by Turkey and is not providing and data to ESHRE EIM Consortium.
IVF with donor eggs – success rate
In the case of donor egg success rate, the effectiveness is independent of the patient’s age. However, remember that your own treatment history and its medical parameters may be important for the expected effect. That is why you should always ask the clinic about your own personal chances of success and not about the average effectiveness of treatment.
| Egg donation success rates in popular countries in Europe* | Pregnancies per fresh ET (%) | Pregnancies per thawed ET (%) |
| Spain | 54.7 | 51.1 |
| Portugal | 52.6 | 40.6 |
| Czech Republic | 42.2 | 23.1 |
| North Cyprus** | no data | no data |
| Greece | 54.7 | 50.1 |
| Ukraine | 61.6 | 62.2 |
| Poland | 34.4 | 44.7 |
| Russia | 48.0 | 45.0 |
| Latvia | 39.5 | 42.3 |
| Denmark | 38.6 | 33.7 |
Supplementary Table SVIII Pregnancies and deliveries after ED (fresh and frozen cycles) in 2017. In Egg Donation cycles, the age of the recipient women had no influence on outcomes. Pregnancies per embryo transfer (fresh and frozen)
**North Cyprus is the self–proclaimed state recognised only by Turkey and is not providing and data to ESHRE EIM Consortium.
IVF success rate – other resources
If you are looking for more information regarding “chances of success” when going through an IVF we highly recommend checking the resources below:
- The importance of 3 full cycles of IVF
- IVF success rate questions – questions answered by multiple fertility experts
- IVF success rate – USA national data by SART
- SART – IVF outcome predictor
