Are You Stat Savvy When It Comes To Infertility?

by Shweta Nayak MD

When trying to conceive a child, the numbers play a big part.  The number of days in your cycle, the number of eggs and sperm, how many days until ovulation etc.  When looking for assistance with fertility issues, numbers become even more crucial and include age, timing for tests and more.  Selecting the right Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility (REI) specialist utilizes numbers as well. When trying to conceive a child, the numbers play a big part.  The number of days in your cycle, the number of eggs and sperm, how many days until ovulation etc.  When looking for assistance with fertility issues, numbers become even more crucial and include age, timing for tests and more.  Selecting the right Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility (REI) specialist utilizes numbers as well.ude age, timing for tests and more.  Selecting the right Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility (REI) specialist utilizes numbers as well. When trying to conceive a child, the numbers play a big part.  The number of days in your cycle, the number of eggs and sperm, how many days until ovulation etc.  When looking for assistance with fertility issues, numbers become even more crucial and include age, timing for tests and more.  Selecting the right Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility (REI) specialist utilizes numbers as well.

The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) is an organization devoted to helping infertility patients clarify and navigate the numbers.  SART is the primary organization of professionals dedicated to the practice of IVF, or assisted reproductive technology (ART), and represents the majority (90%) of the ART clinics in the country (www.sart.org). The mission of SART is to establish and maintain standards for ART so that patients receive the highest possible level of care.

It’s best to know your own numbers, as age, evaluation, medical history, ovarian reserve, and sperm counts can all impact chances for success.  However, when researching a clinic, Shweta Nayak MD, a Board Certified REI with Reproductive Medicine Institute (www.teamrmi.com), shares her top tips:

1. Learn more about your clinic through the “Clinic Services and profile” tab.  Here, the key items to consider are not only that the clinic is a SART member, but also that they have verified lab accreditation.
2. Many variables are listed as outcomes in SART, but perhaps the most important one to consider is the cumulative chance for live birth.  This rate reflects the chance of achieving a live birth after a fresh or frozen embryo transfer within a year of initiating a cycle.
3. Need another good tell for how great a lab is?  Some clinics may have strict exclusion criteria for patients who will pursue IVF.  This means other clinics, who may have a larger population of more challenging cases, appear to have relatively lower success rates by comparison.  Ultimately, this means that you CAN NOT draw a straight line comparison between clinics due to the specific patient population that is cared for by each clinic, and all of the individual factors involved.  Thus, the best measure of the proficiency of a lab or clinic is the donor egg IVF rates as, in this scenario, all other factors for infertility are minimized.
4. Want to get more personalized information about your chances for success?  Visit https://www.sartcorsonline.com/predictor/patient, or contact your own fertility specialist, or one of RMI’s physicians for consultation (www.teamrmi.com).

As with any medical specialty, the personal relationships formed between the patient and the physician and/or the patient and the practice are crucial in determining a good connection.  None the less, being savvy of the statistics in either selecting or confirming your physician/clinic of choice, is another good determinant.

When trying to conceive a child, the numbers play a big part.  The number of days in your cycle, the number of eggs and sperm, how many days until ovulation etc.  When looking for assistance with fertility issues, numbers become even more crucial and include age, timing for tests and more.  Selecting the right Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility (REI) specialist utilizes numbers as well.

The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) is an organization devoted to helping infertility patients clarify and navigate the numbers.  SART is the primary organization of professionals dedicated to the practice of IVF, or assisted reproductive technology (ART), and represents the majority (90%) of the ART clinics in the country (www.sart.org). The mission of SART is to establish and maintain standards for ART so that patients receive the highest possible level of care.