How to compare fertility clinics
The headline success rate is the least useful number a clinic publishes. It tells you who the clinic treats at least as much as how well it treats them. Here is what to compare instead, using the same federal data every clinic reports to.
Why the big number misleads
A clinic's overall success rate mixes together patients whose odds differ enormously. Nationally, 49.7% of intended egg retrievals in patients under 35 end in a live birth, against 7.7% in patients over 40 — the same procedure, the same year, a 6.5-fold gap that has nothing to do with the clinic.
A program that treats younger patients, or declines difficult cases, posts better numbers without being better. One that takes on hard cases posts worse ones. This is why the CDC attaches a warning to its own data:
Success rates vary with patient age, diagnosis, and clinic patient-selection practices; comparisons across clinics may not be meaningful (CDC).
Compare inside your own age band
Every clinic profile here breaks outcomes out by patient age, because that is the only comparison that holds. Find your band below, then read clinics against the national figure for that band rather than against each other's headline rate.
| Patient age | Live birth per retrieval | Retrievals per live birth | Retrievals reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | 49.7% | 2.0 | 62,780 |
| 35–37 | 36.3% | 2.8 | 41,504 |
| 38–40 | 23.1% | 4.3 | 41,475 |
| Over 40 | 7.7% | 13.0 | 36,439 |
CDC NASS 2022 Final ART Summary. Success rates vary with patient age, diagnosis, and clinic patient-selection practices; comparisons across clinics may not be meaningful (CDC).
Count cycles, not percentages
Retrievals per live birth is the same data turned into the number you actually budget and plan around. At the national rate a patient under 35 needs about 2.0 retrievals for one live birth, and a patient over 40 about 13.0. A clinic a few points better on percentage may or may not change that count. Ask what it means for your age and diagnosis, in cycles.
Check whether there is enough data to judge
A small program can post a spectacular rate on a handful of cycles. Of the 422 clinics in the federal record, 361 report enough for us to rate; 61 do not, and are marked not rated rather than ranked low. Treat any rate built on few cycles — ours or a clinic's own — as noise until you have seen the denominator.
What has no data at all: IUI
There is no clinic-level IUI success data anywhere in the United States. Federal reporting law covers ART — procedures that handle eggs or embryos — so intrauterine insemination outcomes are never collected. Any IUI success rate you are shown comes from the clinic itself, usually without a denominator or an age breakdown. That does not make it false. It makes it unverifiable, and not comparable between clinics.
Take these to the consult
- What is your live birth rate per retrieval for patients my age and diagnosis, and over how many cycles?
- How many cycles do you expect for us, and what does each cost, all in?
- What share of your patients are over 38? It explains most of the difference between clinics.
- Do you cancel cycles that are going poorly, and does a canceled cycle count in the rate you just quoted me?
- Who does the transfer, and who reads the lab work — the physician I am meeting, or whoever is on that day?
What our ranking does, and doesn't
Our ranking is age-stratified against the national benchmark and published in full, weights and all, on the methodology page. It cannot correct for patient selection — nobody's can — and no clinic can buy a position in it. Use it to build a shortlist, and use the consult to choose.
Data: CDC NASS 2022 Final ART Summary. This page is general information, not medical advice.