Assisted Reproductive Technology Statistics

More than 40,000 infants were born in 2001 as a result of assisted-reproductive technology (ART) procedures, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report, “Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance—United States, 2001,” is available online at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5301a1.htm.

Most of the women who underwent ART used freshly fertilized embryos from their own eggs (75 percent of the 107,587 ART procedures performed in 2001). A total of 14 percent used thawed embryos from their own eggs, 8 percent used freshly fertilized embryos from donor eggs, and 3 percent used thawed embryos from donor eggs. Although the average live-birth rate for ART-transfer procedures performed among women who used their own freshly fertilized eggs was 33 percent, live-birth rates ranged from 41 percent among women younger than 35 years to 7 percent among women older than 42 years. The highest success rates were reported in patients who used donor eggs and freshly fertilized embryos (56 percent pregnancy rate, 47 percent live-birth rate, and 27 percent singleton live-birth rate).

Nearly one half of ART procedures using freshly fertilized embryos from the patient's own eggs were performed in women younger than 35. Tubal factor, male factor, and endometriosis were more common in younger women; overall, 10 to 13 percent of couples had unexplained infertility, 10 to 17 percent had multiple female factors, and 17 to 21 percent had both male and female factors.

In all, the 29, 344 live-birth deliveries resulted in 40,687 infants; the number of infants born was higher than the number of deliveries because of multiple-birth deliveries.