IVF Success Rates

Since becoming a full time IVF Unit in 2004, we have treated hundreds of couples - both Caribbean and International.

Male factor is very prevalent here in the Caribbean and this is reflected in that around 90% of our clients require ICSI. However, at Barbados Fertility Centre we tailor treatments to suit the needs of the patients.

We believe both our high standard of medical care combined with the relaxing atmosphere of this island, contributes to our success rates - of which we are very proud.

We are delighted to report that we continued to build on our successes of 2007. We have improved and maintained these high success rates throughout 2008 and our new single site unit allows for even further development.

Our flexible embryo culture system permits blastocyst culture and the results are very encouraging as can be seen in the table below.

TREATMENT CYCLES	PREGNANCY RATE: 2007
IVF AND ICSI Combined
Under 35	47%
35 - 37	38%
38 - 41	29%
Over 42	14%
Blastocyst ET
All Ages	67%
FET
All Ages	33%

n/a: either denotes not applicable or that the numbers were too small to be represented.

How do the success rates at Barbados Fertility Centre compare with International success rates?

To best answer this question we can compare success rates which are published by the Centre of Disease Control (CDC) in the USA and by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the UK.

To allow the fairest and for best comparison we have presented rates according to the age of the female as this has a significant impact on likely success of treatment.

From the graph below it is clear that Barbados Fertility Centre has better success rates at all ages compared to national statistics in the USA and UK.

Understanding ART Success Rates
What are the chances of success for a couple having IVF treatment? This may seem like a simple question but trying to interpret success rates from IVF units can get confusing! Below are some simple tips:

• There are different ways to quote success rates from IVF. For simplicity most IVF units refer to clinical pregnancy rates (CPR) which includes a pregnancy only when there is a fetal heart beat present on ultrasound.
• Because the age of the woman affects the success rate immensely, for comparison purposes it is normal to try to compare women of similar ages.
• When comparing one IVF centre to another the best way to standardize is to compare women in the younger age ranges, as the impact of age may affect success rates dramatically. Hence the “under 38 year old” success rate is often used when trying to interpret different outcomes between one centre versus another.

Interpretation of above success rates
The success of your treatment depends on many factors and your specific treatment options. General IVF success rates can be misleading because they do not take into account the individual patient and their situation. Assisted reproduction techniques (ART) procedures and success rates have dramatically increased worldwide since IVF began, but there are still many hurdles to cross during a treatment cycle. For instance, your chance of success needs to take into consideration:

• Age of the female partner
• Quality of the sperm
• Quality and number of eggs retrieved
• Reason and duration of infertility
• Quality control in the laboratory
• Skill and competence of the IVF team

Your IVF medical team at Barbados Fertility Centre can talk you through the hurdles of your specific treatment. We will be able to assess your individual case and give you a projected success rate that is applicable to you.

Going through an IVF cycle involves substantial commitment of time, energy, finance and emotional input. Therefore, we will provide all the information necessary to assist you in making an informed decision. This includes medical, psychological, financial and statistical data.

There are a number of reasons why a cycle may be cancelled or not completed in full, which is another hurdle your medical team will counsel you about in more detail.

Please contact us as we are looking forward to hearing from you and helping in any way we can.