The pregnancy rates issue raised a few important questions. I agree, there are some programs who try to stack their numbers by rejecting patients who are very difficult. I do think this happens less often than you might think. Can you figure out who these clinics are? The rumor mill helps but it’s not the best system. The program's numbers may give you hints.
Look at the pregnancy rates for the women under 35. Yes, there are some women in this age group who have high FSH and/or are poor responders but the vast majority of women in the age group are ok. So if a program takes hard patients in this age group, there should be enough easier patients to still give the group as a whole a high pregnancy rate. If a center has high rates in the younger patients but lower for the older patients, they are probably not selecting.
Even better, go to the donor egg stats. There is no selection when it comes to donors. If the program has low pregnancy rates in the donor egg patients, they probably will not have high rates in any group, and it has nothing to do with selection. Another thing to watch for is cycles cancelled. As you know, some patients get cancelled after they start their medications because not enough eggs develop. If a program reports 0 cancellations, be suspicious. It is impossible that every patient made it to retrieval. 0 cancellations means the program is not accurately reporting their stats.
I think there is less selection out there these days. All of the programs are facing more competition as new clinics pop up every day. Rejecting a viable but difficult candidate means losing that woman to another clinic; not an easy thing to let hapen.
The fact is, some programs are better at getting women pregnant than others. Just because the doctors are nice guys and gals, and come from prestigious medical institutions, it doesn’t mean they provide a top notch product. There are hundreds of steps that occur in the IVF process, and a little extra attention to each of those steps will help you in the end. All architects are not equally skilled, the same for mechanics, lawyers, hair dressers, etc. I am not saying it’s critical to find a program that is 2 percentage points higher than the other. But, if there are real differences in the numbers, use the information to your advantage.
The SART stats are not perfect but they can be used as a guide. This system was developed to protect the consumer. Compiling and reporting the numbers from each clinic is a tremendous task that is very time consuming and expensive. You get to see the results for free. They are a good place to start.
Dr. Licciardi
Look at the pregnancy rates for the women under 35. Yes, there are some women in this age group who have high FSH and/or are poor responders but the vast majority of women in the age group are ok. So if a program takes hard patients in this age group, there should be enough easier patients to still give the group as a whole a high pregnancy rate. If a center has high rates in the younger patients but lower for the older patients, they are probably not selecting.
Even better, go to the donor egg stats. There is no selection when it comes to donors. If the program has low pregnancy rates in the donor egg patients, they probably will not have high rates in any group, and it has nothing to do with selection. Another thing to watch for is cycles cancelled. As you know, some patients get cancelled after they start their medications because not enough eggs develop. If a program reports 0 cancellations, be suspicious. It is impossible that every patient made it to retrieval. 0 cancellations means the program is not accurately reporting their stats.
I think there is less selection out there these days. All of the programs are facing more competition as new clinics pop up every day. Rejecting a viable but difficult candidate means losing that woman to another clinic; not an easy thing to let hapen.
The fact is, some programs are better at getting women pregnant than others. Just because the doctors are nice guys and gals, and come from prestigious medical institutions, it doesn’t mean they provide a top notch product. There are hundreds of steps that occur in the IVF process, and a little extra attention to each of those steps will help you in the end. All architects are not equally skilled, the same for mechanics, lawyers, hair dressers, etc. I am not saying it’s critical to find a program that is 2 percentage points higher than the other. But, if there are real differences in the numbers, use the information to your advantage.
The SART stats are not perfect but they can be used as a guide. This system was developed to protect the consumer. Compiling and reporting the numbers from each clinic is a tremendous task that is very time consuming and expensive. You get to see the results for free. They are a good place to start.
Dr. Licciardi