The pros and cons of the requirement by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) for their members who perform in vitro fertilization and related procedures to report their pregnancy rates to the center for disease control

Abstract

Purpose: To present pros and cons of the requirement of in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers, to record their statistics, and make them public. Materials and Methods: Various tricks are presented as to how some IVF centers can “pad” their pregnancy rates. Results: Some of these “tricks” include not trying as hard with the patients’ own oocytes but steering them into donor oocyte programs because, though they could eventually get pregnant with their own eggs, it could be at the detriment of the given IVF center's pregnancy rates, which in turn, could be “bad for business”. Conclusions: Published statistics help a patient to choose an experienced center with a good pregnancy rate, but the consumer should not necessarily equate the IVF center with the highest pregnancy rates as the best center for their problem.