IVF Success Rates

An IVF clinic’s success rates are one way of measuring a fertility center’s IVF lab expertise, as well as how a center compares to national averages. Although these metrics can be used when comparing different fertility centers, it’s important to understand the factors that go into the numbers, as well as how the numbers are compiled.

LLU Center for Fertility’s IVF success rates

Please click the button below to view LLU Center for Fertility’s IVF success rates through the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) website.

Loma Linda University Center for Fertility’s IVF Success Rates

Understanding IVF success rates

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART)—organizations in charge of establishing standards for IVF success rates—warn against direct comparisons between clinics, stating:

Clinics may have differences in patient selection, treatment approaches, and cycle reporting practices, which may inflate or lower pregnancy rates relative to another clinic. Please discuss this with your doctor.

For instance, each patient treated, including his or her specific diagnosis and treatment plan, affects an IVF lab’s success rates. Factors include:

  • Medical history
  • Cause(s) of infertility
  • Age category
  • Medical complexity
  • Treatment protocol
  • And more.

Often fertility centers that accept a higher number of medically complex or older fertility patients will have lower success rates, or a more balanced number of reported cycles in each age group, as opposed to a center that favors only healthier fertility patients (in the 35 and under age group). When evaluating a center’s success rates, it’s important to inquire about their patient screening processes.

Success rate categories & definitions

Donor cycles: female patients who used donor eggs instead of their own.

Female patients age 35 & under: this category shows the best success rates with IVF because it encompasses the healthiest group of patients.

Females 35-37: this category often shows favorable success rates because overall fertility health is still good, but not as good as the 35 & under group.

Females 38-40: this category tends to have a lower success rate, as overall fertility health is lower.

Females 41 & over: this category has the most medically complex patients and lowest fertility health, so it often shows the lowest IVF success rates.

Clinical pregnancy rate: the percentage of total pregnancies out of total IVF cycles (treatment attempts) performed in the IVF clinic.

Live birth rate: the percentage of total babies born from total IVF cycles performed in the fertility clinic.

Fresh cycle: an IVF cycle in which the woman’s eggs are retrieved and fertilized, then after three-five days of development a healthy embryo is placed in the woman’s uterus.

Frozen cycle: an IVF cycle in which the woman’s eggs are retrieved and fertilized, and then the resulting embryos are cryopreserved (frozen); during another cycle, the frozen embryo is thawed, then placed in the woman’s uterus (also called an FET, or frozen embryo transfer).