Assisted reproductive technology in Europe, 2003. Results generated from European registers by ESHRE

European results of assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) from treatments initiated during 2003 are presented in this seventh report.

Data were mainly collected from already existing national registers. From 28 countries, 725 clinics reported 365 103 treatment cycles with: IVF 132 932, ICSI 162 149, frozen embryo replacement (FER) 60 412, oocyte donation (OD) 7548, PGD/PGS 1956 and IVM 109. Overall, this represents a 13% increase since 2002. For the third time, results on European data on intrauterine inseminations (IUIs) were reported from 19 countries. A total of 99 577 cycles (IUI-H, 82 834; IUI-D, 16 743) were included.

In those 15 countries where all clinics reported to the register, a total of 284 765 cycles were performed in a population of 278.7 million, corresponding to 1022 cycles per million inhabitants. For IVF, the clinical pregnancy rates per aspiration and per transfer were 26.1 and 29.6%, respectively. For ICSI, the corresponding rates were 26.5 and 28.7%. After IUI-H, the clinical pregnancy rate was 12.2% in women below 40 years and 8.8% in women > or =40 years. After IVF and ICSI, the distribution of transfer of one, two, three and four or more embryos was 15.7, 55.9, 24.9 and 3.5%, respectively. Compared to the year 2002, fewer embryos were transferred, but huge differences still exist between countries. The distribution of singleton, twin and triplet deliveries for IVF and ICSI combined was 76.7, 22.0 and 1.1%, respectively. This gives a total multiple delivery rate of 23.1% compared with 24.5% in 2002. The range of triplet deliveries after IVF and ICSI varied from 0.0 to 4.4% between countries. After IUI-H in women below 40 years of age, 11.4% were twin and 2.2% triplet gestations.