More Than One Million Babies Have Been Born With Help From Assisted Fertility Methods

At least one million infants total have been born in the United States with the help of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or other assisted reproductive technologies according to the latest report by the U.S. Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART).

The SART report shows that of the 213,004 treatment cycles completed, nearly 68,000 babies were born in 2015 using assisted reproductive technologies, with an overall success rate of 32 percent.

The report also noted positive trends in different techniques. For years, fertility doctors transferred several embryos into a woman at a time, frequently leading to twins, triplets and other outcomes. However, because these multiple pregnancies can be dangerous for the mother and babies, more clinics have begun using just a single embryo for the procedure.

“Fewer embryos transferred leads to lower incidence of multiple birth: 80.5 percent of babies born from 2015 cycles were singletons; 19.1 percent twins; and fewer than one-half of one percent were triplets (or higher order),” SART reported.

The use of frozen, donated eggs has also become more popular, as the report shows that more than 3,200 of the 2015 cases used a frozen egg.

The first American IVF baby was born in 1981 and, according SART, around one in every 100 babies born in the United States are conceived using IVF and other related treatments.

Photo: DrKontogianniIVF, CC-BY

Jane Snyder is a health intern with Paste and a freelance writer and photojournalist based out of Athens, Georgia.