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About Pregnancy Rates
About Pregnancy Rate Timeliness
Pregnancy rate information, by Federal U.S. law, is
submitted to and verified by the Center of Disease Control.
The collection of this information is an arduous process for
each IVF lab in the country. By nature of nature itself,
this information at the earliest is 9+ months after the end of a
year, as live births are calculated. The 2006 information
has not been verified by the CDC at this time.
About Comparing IVF Clinics
Please, please, please, do not take the actual pregnancy
rate information as the final evaluation of an IVF center.
The information should be able to provide you with insight for
follow-up questions and/or comparisons if you desire. As
referenced by the link above, the CDC recommends a constant
reminder to patients that a "comparison of clinic success rates
may not be meaningful ...". We would like to embellish on
a few possibilities that can have an impact on the ultimate
pregnancy rate outcome as well as the marketing therein:
- "If you torture the numbers enough, they
will confess to anything." We don't know who said that
first, but there is some relevance. There are too many
variables to make an absolute proclamation about
superiority, especially when rates are somewhat close.
Patient selection and treatment motivations play an integral
role.
- Small numbers can be very high or low on
a percentage basis without having any statistical relevance.
- Each patient has a history. Based
on that history, which may be very recent from tests
conducted from the IVF lab itself, a physician can get an
good indication about a particular patient's chances of
success. Based on this, choosing specific patients to
treat, or not treat, can adjust the ultimate outcome.
- Each physician has an opinion about "low
tech" therapy. Although it is less expensive per
treatment cycle, it can also be less effective. If a
patient does not exhaust the low tech options that could
have been successful, potentially rates could be elevated,
because that patient was an easier patient to successfully
treat.
- Insurance, or lack of insurance, can have
an impact on the treatment approaches. Additionally,
there are some states with mandated coverage, but most do
not. If there is IVF coverage, there is likely going
to be more difficult patients willing to attempt the therapy
since they have less or no financial risk. This will
lower the overall pregnancy rates.
- These are just a few examples of issues
that alter comparative relevance.
What Data is Missing
Although there is a tremendous amount of information at the
CDC, this information can also be confusing. However, if
we were a lobby organization, there is a need for some of the
following: rates for first time attempts only; multiple
birth data before selective reduction; and an improvement in
qualifying "difficult patients" ... just to start.
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