An ART program's performance can be evaluated in several ways. One way is by considering how many IVF cycles were conducted by a program and another way is to consider how many IVF cycles were initiated by a program. These descriptions differ on the basis of how many IVF cycles were started but later canceled prior to conducting an egg retrieval. The numbers of canceled IVF cycles are taken into account with statistics that use the number of IVF cycles initiated as the denominator in calculations but the canceled cycles are not included in calculations in statistics that use the number of IVF cycles conducted by a program. Many programs base their statistics on the number of IVF cycles conducted since this statistic takes into account all of the components of an IVF cycle. In the case of a canceled IVF cycle, all of the components of a complete IVF cycle are missing except the ovarian stimulation, which failed. Our program uses statistics based on the number of IVF cycles conducted. Should you desire information on statistics based on the number of IVF cycles initiated, we shall be glad to provide you with this information.

Many patients ask the question, “How many patients in your program were successful in getting pregnant and then maintaining their pregnancy?” In order to best answer this question, program performance can be evaluated on the basis of number of IVF patients that became pregnant as a result of IVF rather than on the number of IVF cycles which resulted in pregnancy. In many IVF cycles there is the opportunity to cryopreserved spare embryos. These “frozen embryos” can be thawed and transferred after the initial IVF cycle. The transfer of previously frozen embryos is a much less expensive option than an IVF cycle that includes ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval. Many of our patients will have extra embryos that can be cryopreserved. When patients ask the question, “How many patients actually took home a baby through your ART program”, we provide them with statistics that combine those pregnancies that resulted from the primary IVF transfer and those pregnancies which occurred from the transfer of frozen embryos. Centers that have successful cryopreservation programs can offer patients a substantial bonus to their success rate compared to programs that have less success with cryopreservation.

We believe that as consumers, our patients have the right to know how well each ART program performs. This information should be available from each program in which you are interested. We believe that it is important for each patient to be confident that the program to which they entrust their care has a long-term, proven record of the techniques and procedures that will be used to help them achieve pregnancy.

Deaconess Center For Reproductive Health is dedicated to finding pregnancy solutions for our patients while keeping multiple gestations at a minimum. In an effort to do this, our specialists minimize the number of embryos that are transferred into the uterus, using guidelines set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The chart below illustrates our success rates:

2009 IVF Pregnancy Rates*.

Age Group	Average # of Embryos Transferred	Ongoing or delivered per cycle start **	Ongoing or delivered per retrieval **	Ongoing or delivered per embryo transfer **
=35	2.0	57% (40/70)	58%(38/66)	58% (38/65)
35-37	1.9	39% (7/18)	43% (7/16)	43% (7/16)
38-40	2.2	27% (3/11)	33% (3/9)	33% (3/9)
Donor Egg*	2.0	80% (8/10)	80% (8/10)	80% (8/10)
Frozen Embryo	NA	58% (11/19)	58% (11/19)	61% (11/18)

*A comparison of clinic success rates may not be meaningful because patient medical characteristics, treatment approaches and entrance criteria for ART may vary from clinic to clinic.