IVF Success: The Top 2 Factors That Affect Outcomes

Many factors affect the success rate of an IVF cycle. When a woman decides to visit a fertility clinic to undergo IVF treatment, 2 basic factors, egg & embryo quality and infertility type & cause can affect her ability to conceive and maintain the pregnancy to full-term delivery of a healthy baby.

Egg and Embryo Quality

Age is the most important factor in predicting IVF cycle success rate. Fewer eggs, in addition to diminished egg quality reduce the chance of success for women 40+. A poor quality egg will develop into a poor quality embryo. Eggs from older women are less capable of genetic separation, leading to an increase in genetically abnormal embryos or aneuploid embryos. These embryos either fail to attach and implant, or lead to miscarriage 99.9% of the time. Women over the age of 40 may want to consider using a donor egg to achieve IVF success

Egg Donation

Some people prefer that a family member or friend donate their eggs. Egg donors you know on a personal level are called known donors. Others decide to use an anonymous egg donor. Anonymous egg donors are women who have applied to become an egg donor. After completing the application process, they are entered into an agency's egg donor database. Choosing an egg donor is a challenging decision. Everyone's needs are different and unique. Egg donor fees and costs are also a consideration.

Infertility Type and Cause

Uterine abnormalities or fibroid tumors may decrease the likelihood of a woman's IVF success. When a woman has uterine abnormalities or fibroid tumors, having surgery to resolve these conditions before proceeding with an IVF cycle can increase the likelihood of becoming pregnant. Success of an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycle depends largely on the patient's ability to produce a good number of high-quality eggs. In attempts to predict the probability of an IVF cycle being successful, experts have developed a number of tools to assess patients' "ovarian reserve." They include blood tests like FSH, and others (like AMH, anti-Müllerian hormone) that can be drawn at any time.

Women with a history of recurrent miscarriages linked to chromosomal problems with the fetus should consider PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis) when completing an IVF cycle. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a reproductive technology used for diagnosis of a genetic disease in early embryos prior to implantation and pregnancy.

Women experiencing ovarian dysfunction, including high FSH levels (low ovarian reserve) may also experience greater difficulty achieving success with IVF. Left untreated, ovarian dysfunction may reduce the odds of IVF success by as much as 25%. The measurement of FSH levels in the blood is one of the most widely used tests to assess a woman's ovarian function and is typically taken on day 2 or 3 of a woman's menstrual cycle. If a woman's FSH levels are above what is expected for her age, she is considered to have "High FSH".

Women diagnosed with hydrosalpinx should consider removing the diseased tube to maximize their chances of success during a cycle. A hydrosalpinx is a distally blocked fallopian tube filled with serous or clear fluid. The blocked tube may become substantially distended giving the tube a characteristic sausage-like shape. The condition is often bilateral and the affected tubes may reach several centimeters in diameter. The blocked tubes cause infertility.

There are many factors that affect the success rate of In Vitro Fertilization, including egg & embryo quality, uterine abnormalities and fibroid tumors. For women affected by these factors, there are treatments and alternative solutions, like egg donation and tubal reversal, that can be effective in achieving IVF success.

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