The experience of in vitro fertilization data collection in Turkey

Abstract

Collecting and reporting data is a crucial aspect of in vitro fertilization (IVF) practice. During the following two decades after the first report of the European IVF-monitoring Consortium (EIM) on IVF data, the number of contributing countries increased gradually reaching nearly forty. For the first seven years of publication, between 2001 and 2007, Turkey did not provide IVF data to the European registry. Turkey first took part in the European registry in 2008 and thus also in the World registry. The addition of Turkish data to EIM was an important milestone, since Turkey appeared as the country with the sixth highest number of cycles, performing nearly eight percent of all European assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles. Turkey continued contributing to the European registry for the following four years consecutively but after 2012 the input of Turkish IVF data stopped. Strikingly, between 2008-2012 Turkey became one of the main contributors to the registry with an ability to give a full report. So far, we do not have a complete European set of data and the number of cycles reported by European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) EIM can easily be said to be an underestimation of the actual number of cycles. IVF data from Turkey - a country having the 17th highest population in the World and appearing among the first six countries in Europe in terms of the number of ART cycles per year- will definitely contribute very much to ESHRE EIM database. It is now time to turn the tide and restart submitting Turkish data to European registry, but this time regularly and in a systematic method. Such an achievement will greatly contribute to the aim of EIM of achieving a complete data set.