Fertility clinics are fudging IVF stats to look more successful
By Jessica Hamzelou,
New Scientist
| 11. 29. 2017
Would-be parents seeking IVF treatment use published success rates to choose a clinic – but the stats don't reflect the real chance of getting pregnant
IVF is more popular than ever. As the average age of first-time parents has increased, so has the demand for fertility treatments.
To help those who are choosing where to have a procedure, organisations in the UK and US collect data from all fertility clinics in those countries, providing success rates for each. Prospective patients say these stats are the most important factor in their decision-making. They also influence whether those clinics receive hospital contracts or business from health insurance companies in the US.
But those success rates aren’t all they seem. Evidence suggests that at least some clinics are finding ways to boost their scores – even if it means “hiding” some IVF cycles, changing the way they treat patients, or turning away people with a low chance of success.
In other words, clinics are giving us a false impression of how successful their procedures are – potentially leading to huge...
Related Articles
By Jorge Barrera and Rachel Houlihan, CBC | 04.09.2024
A Canadian DNA laboratory knowingly delivered prenatal paternity test results that routinely identified the wrong biological fathers — ruling out the real dads — and left a trail of shattered lives around the globe, a CBC News investigation has found...
By Neel Shah, The Preprint | 04.11.2024
Years ago, I interviewed for a residency position at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Standing before the domed Victorian building at the campus entrance, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the history of the place, the great...
By Eleanor Hayward and Joanna Crawford, The Times | 03.29.2024
Gazing out at the Mediterranean from an idyllic rocky mountaintop, Sophie Hermann announced to her half a million Instagram followers that she had decided to freeze her eggs. Since that post in August, the 37-year-old former Made in Chelsea star...
By Judith Levine, The Intercept | 04.04.2024
WHEN THE ALABAMA Supreme Court ruled that fertilized embryos were “extrauterine children,” it did more than imperil the future of in vitro fertilization in Alabama and, potentially, the U.S. The ruling, on the claimed “wrongful death” of frozen embryos...