Pregnancy rates at Eugonia

• Pregnancy rates at Eugonia
• The importance of pregnancy rates
• What factors contribute to the increase of success rates?
• What do success rates depend on?
• How they are expressed
• European pregnancy rates

Pregnancy rates at Eugonia

Our pregnancy rates in the last 12 years are among the best internationally regarding the percentage of live births per embryo transfer and the percentage of positive pregnancy tests.

We present three tables showing:

a) pregnancy rates with fresh embryos according to age (table 1)

b) the yearly variation of pregnancy rates (table 2)

c) pregnancy rates with frozen embryos (table 3)

Table 1: Fresh cycles

Time period: September 1997 - December 2007
Number of cycles: 4602 *
Number of embryo transfers: 3898

* Cycles with cryopreserved embryos are not included

Table 2: Pregnancy rates per year and age*

NB: The percentage of biochemical pregnancy (positive test) for women <40 years in the first semester of 2006 was 68.75% pr embryo transfer.

* The yearly rates of positive pregnancy tests per embryo transfer for women <40 years and >40 years of age in a total of 4602 cycles is shown in table 3 (excluding cycles with frozen embryos).

Table 3: Frozen cycles

Frozen embryos (September 1997 - December 2007)
Number of cycles: 649
Number of embryo transfers: 618

NB: The statistical data presented concern the number of cycles, egg collections and embryo transfers from 9/1997 until 12/2007. There was not patient selection regarding the cause or duration of infertility, the number of previous attempts and the method of fertilization (IVF or ICSI).

The importance of pregnancy rates

The quality of service and the technological background of an Assisted Reproduction Unit are judged based on the end result.
The official recording of results by a national authority and their subsequent publication would provide interested couples with a reliable criterion for which IVF Unit to select.

In Greece, an independent National Authority of Human Assisted Reproduction has been recently formed, and its remits include, among others, the recording and publication of success rates for every IVF unit in Greece. It is expected that this national registration of results will form the basis for the creation of a complete infertility epidemiological file.

What factors contribute to the increase of success rates?

Constantly accumulated information on reproductive physiology, embryology, reproductive endocrinology, laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery, as well as new drugs, the quickly developing technical equipment and the dramatic progress of applied methods, combined with the practical application of quality management systems in clinical laboratories, have lead to a significant increase of success rates.

What do success rates depend on?

Pregnancy success rates depend on many factors, including some obvious ones (quality and number of embryos, age of woman, sperm quality, infertility cause) and some not so obvious (technological background of doctors, embryologists, nurses and other scientists implicated in the treatment, the setup and the quality control of the laboratory).

It is necessary to note that the age of the woman is the deciding factor for the success of the treatment. It is internationally accepted that increased age is related with statistically significantly lower pregnancy rates and births of healthy children.

How they are expressed

Success rates are expressed as:

• Positive pregnancy tests (biochemical pregnancies)
• Clinical pregnancies (embryos with heart beat)
• On going pregnancies (>12 weeks)
• Live births

The presentation of results can also be based on special parameters, like:

• Age of woman, e.g. pregnancy success rates for women below 40 and over 40, or for women <35, 35-40, 40-43, >43 years of age.
• The treatment method: in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) transfer of cryopreserved embryos (FER), preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD, PGS), oocyte or embryo donation (OD, ED), in vitro maturation oocytes (IVM), etc.
• Cause of infertility, etc.

European pregnancy rates

We present the pregnancy rates following IVF in European countries in 2005. The results were collated from the European IVF Monitoring Programme, EIM) that operates under the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). The results were published in Human Reproduction, official journal of ESHRE (EIM, A.N.Andersen et al., Hum Reprod. 2009 Feb;24(6):1267-1287, 2009).
See the publication

This is the seventh annual report of ESHRE, while the six previous ones concern statistical data form the years 1997-2002. The data for 2005 were collected from 30 European countries. The quality of data differs from country to country and is not always complete.

For Greece, the data are derived from 12 IVF Units from a total of 50 and are collated by the Prof. Basil Tarlatzis, Professor of Obstetrics-Gynaecology and Human Reproduction at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Eugonia (with its present scientific composition) has participated fully in this annual registration of data since 1997.

We present three tables summarizing clinical pregnancies and live births rates resulting from IVF (Table 1), ICSI (Table 2) and cryopreserved embryos (Table 3).

For IVF, the average clinical pregnancy rate is 30.3% per embryo transfer, ranging from 20.00% to 50,00% between different countries.

Table 1: Clinical pregnancy and live birth rates following IVF in 2005

Note: Pregnancy rates of European countries are calculated over the total of treated women without age classification.

ICSI = intracytoplasmic sperm injection
E.T = embryo transfer
Pregnacies = Clinical pregnancies

In the case of transfer of frozen embryos (FER) the average clinical pregnancy rate is 30,9% per embryo transfer, ranging from 20,00% to 41,7% between different countries.

Table 2: Clinical pregnancy and live birth rates following ICSI in 2005

Note: Pregnancy rates of European countries are calculated over the total of treated women without age classification.

FER = frozen embryo transfers
E.T = embryo transfer
Pregnacies = Clinical pregnancies

In the case of transfer of frozen embryos (FER) the average clinical pregnancy rate is 19,6% per embryo transfer, ranging from 11,8% to 30.0% between different countries.

Table 3: Clinical pregnancy and live birth rates following FER in 2005

Note: Pregnancy rates of European countries are calculated over the total of treated women without age classification.

FER = frozen embryo transfers
E.T = embryo transfer
Pregnacies = Clinical pregnancies

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