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DR. STEVEN TAYLOR: Success rates in in vitro fertilization have always been a very confusing topic for patients. Success rates have been variously reported by clinics as pregnancy rate per cycle, per egg retrieval, per embryo transfer, as well as the so-called live baby rate for all of those areas. We have always felt that the only truly good measure of the efficiency of a laboratory is the so-called take home baby rate or live baby rate per egg retrieval.

Now, we have been very proud over the years that during the last five or so years our success rate for our greatest group of patients, those under the age of 35, has exceeded 50%. It is also very important when patients start to compare one clinic to another that they truly understand these numbers so that comparisons are fair. Elsewhere on our website we do have a full listing of our success rate in chart form and we encourage you to look at this and really understand where you are.

It is also important as you look at this chart to notice that success rates do decline rather significantly with age and therefore it is very important for our patients beyond age 35 not to lose a lot of time pursing relatively inefficient methods of achieving pregnancy or to repeat procedures that have been unsuccessful in the past. We therefore do encourage our patients beyond age 35 to truly consider more aggressive approaches to fertility treatment.