Success rates and age!

[Kirstin]

I can find loads of stats for IVF success rates for the under 36s as a whole group and then for smaller groups above that but I was just wondering whether there were any rates for a smaller breakdown in ages for the under 36s.

I am 20 and fertile (OH has the problem) would I have a same or better chance than a 35 yr old fertile woman? Or a 35 yr old woman with known fertility problems?

The stats are a bit vague and need broken down

 

[vineyard]

You should ask your clinic because the rates vary from clinic to clinic. What state (or country) are you located in?

 

[Kirstin]

They said we had a 40% chance. The stats they had for under 36s for the clinic was 33.5%

We're in England.

 

[vineyard]

My clinic is around 60% for under 35 and around 40% for over 35.

 

[Kirstin]

Wow and this clinic is supposed to be one of the best in the country

 

[CurlySue]

It depends on the number of people treated though. For example, if a clinic treats 100 people and 50 get pregnant, they can say they have a 50% success rate. What if a clinic has 10,000 people treated and only 4,000 get pregnant? That is only 40%, but it's still a lot of pregnancies. We were told at our info evening that you should not really go on success rates in comparison with other hospitals because you do not know the number of patients they are treating and if you put it in comparison then sometimes it is unfair results.

The bigger the sample, the bigger the chance for failure, for example.

They say that fertility starts decreasing at 34 or 35 and that is why they base the numbers on before 35 and after 35. There probably would not be a more specific breakdown because they do their studies based on perceived fertility decline.

 

[latestarter]

The other thing about statistics is that they are deceiving. Some clinics will not treat certain fertility problems because of the low chance of success - simply because it decreases their success rates. Other clinics, that are very good - will treat that patient and try to get them pregnant - even though "statistically" it won't look good.

I suggesting finding an RE with a good reputation, and one you can talk with easily, and one you trust. Statistics are important - but be careful to read between the lines.

 

[CurlySue]

Indeed that is true, latestarter, and whilst they might say "our success rate is 70%" this could well be because they do not treat those over 35, whose success rates decrease by year.

It's the same with any sample study. To get a fair comparison it would have to be the same number of patients, the same age over the same timescale.

 

[CurlySue]

I am 20 and fertile (OH has the problem) would I have a same or better chance than a 35 yr old fertile woman? Or a 35 yr old woman with known fertility problems?

Thought i would answer the specific question.

Yes, you would have a better chance than a 35 year old both with or without fertility problems. They say that the 'optimum child bearing age' is between 18 and 24. This is when you are at your most fertile but it does not drop substantially until your thirties.

A 35 year old with fertility problems would be on the gradual decline. A 35 year old WITHOUT fertility problems would still be on that decline, despite the fact that she is reproductively healthy. Nature, after all, cannot really be cheated.

 

[Kirstin]

Thank you x

 

[Aria]

In general, you have a higher chance of getting pregnant than even me (I'm 28). The younger you are, the better the odds in general. A number of factors can play into this as well though.

As has already been pointed out, clinics can skew their numbers. The first clinic we met with only treated people with a higher chance, such as younger people, or people with occluded tubes (me), but I didn't get a good feeling about them. We ended up going with Stanford, which has a lower overall success rate, BUT they also treat couples with major problems, such as bad eggs and bad sperm in the same couple. It is important to know whether the clinic you go to treats only those more likely to get pregnant or a wider variety of patients. Also important is to make sure you feel comfortable with your doctor. It's a hard, HARD road, and if you don't feel safe crying in front of your doctor, you're not at the right clinic.

 

[CurlySue]

They all want to make themselves look like 'the best there is' but you have to kind of take it all as propaganda, in a sense. No 'company' want to make themselves look bad so they omit details in order to make themselves look better. They leave out the fineprint. It's best not to concentrate on success rates and concentrate more on the 'feel' of a place. At the end of the day, if it's going to work for you it will work for you. If it's not then it's largely out of your hands anyway. If your egg fertilises and implants, you get pregnant no matter how many other people did before you.