Tag: Birth Rate

Who’s Best – IVF Rates vs. Tubal Reversal Pregnancy Statistics?

Are you searching to learn the real difference between IVF rates of success and tubal reversal pregnancy statistics for a pregnancy after tubal ligation?  If you are like many women, you’ve been doing a search to learn which option is best for you.  However, the information you get at one site conflicts with what you learn at another.  So let’s look at what the CDC and a recent tubal reversal study provided.

Before we actually start comparing pregnancy statistics, let’s take a quick look at average costs.  A tubal reversal on average costs about $8,000 – $9,000 which is a onetime fee.  An IVF is a $10,000 – $12,000 cost per cycle meaning you will have to pay that fee or a substantial part of it each time you try IVF to get pregnant.  That’s where the IVF rates compared to tubal reversal come in.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected data from various fertility clinics regarding IVF rates.  You would think that the way it gets pushed that the rates were good, wouldn’t you?  Well, let’s take a look.

From the CDC’s own .gov site here are the facts about IVF rates.  “…in 2006, 99,199 fresh–nondonor ART cycles were started. Of those, 34,719 (35%) led to a pregnancy, but only 28,404 (29%) resulted in a live birth.”   ART stands for Assisted Reproductive Technology which includes using both fresh and frozen non-donor and donor eggs.  So, you can see while 35% of the cycles led to a pregnancy, only 29% led to a baby being born.

Now, let’s look at the tubal reversal pregnancy statistics which are available from a study which collected data from over 5000 women.  For women under 30, the pregnancy statistics show an 80% chance of becoming pregnant.  Live births are at 55%.  

IVF pregnancy rates, on the other hand, for women under 30 went from a high of 49.1% for 23 year olds down to 38.2% for women under 21.  The live birth rate was from 42.7% for 23 year olds again down to a little over 35% for women 21 and under per cycle.  With each successive non productive cycle, you are less likely to get pregnant the next time.  

However, as a woman gets older, her chances of becoming pregnant and of having a baby are lower.  This holds true with tubal reversal, IVF, and women who need neither.  The live birth rate of women over 40 who had tubal reversals and continued to maintain contact with the center was 33%.  The IVF rates for live births for women over 40 started at 15.4% for 40 and went down each year till the rate was 1.5% for women over 44.

The above pregnancy statistics were listed to show you the two ends of the range.  Another fact to know is that about 11% of ART cycles were stopped even before the eggs were retrieved due to one problem or another such as potential for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, medical illness or personal reason.  The major reason was simply no or too little egg production.

Now you know the real facts from data that has been collected from real women.  You can review all the IVF rates data from the CDC’s site.  Likewise, you can review the tubal reversal pregnancy statistics on line as well.  Do the comparisons yourself and make the best choice for you.