REPORTING OUTCOMES

In 1992, the Fertility Clinic Success Rate and Certification Act was passed. This federal law requires the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to gather facts about IVF cycles and pregnancy outcomes in the U.S. each year. These facts and success rates are reported every year.

​

Information from your IVF procedure will be reported to the CDC. It will also be reported to the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART) of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), if your clinic is a member of this organization. The CDC may ask for more information from the treatment center or contact you directly for additional follow up. Information about your cycle may be used for research or quality control according to HIPAA guidelines. Your name will never be connected to your cycle information in any research that is published.

Research Conducted by SART Since 2006, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology has participated in a series of studies looking at the health of women and children after IVF. Many of these studies are still being conducted. The studies compare women who have not had trouble conceiving and their children with women who used IVF and their children. The studies also compare women who had trouble conceiving but did not do IVF, and their children, to women and their IVF children. IVF children who have siblings from another study group. They are compared with their siblings who were conceived with IVF, conceived with non-IVF fertility treatment, or conceived spontaneously. The items studied are problems related to pregnancy or birth, and the risk of birth defects. Children are also followed to find out if they have developmental delays, problems in school, or increased risk of childhood or adult cancer. You can see the results of many of these studies in the information given below. Results can also be found on the SART website (www.sart.org) under “Research”.