Assisted Reproduction · Registries and Reporting
RRM Academy Synopsis
Canadian IVF Registry Reports A 29% Live Birth Rate In 2008
This is Canada's national fertility clinic registry report for 2008. All 28 Canadian clinics reported 15,000 fertility treatment cycles that year. In the most common procedure, IVF using a woman's own eggs, 29 out of 100 cycles led to a live birth, and 28.9% of those deliveries were twins or more.
Key Findings
- The largest group, 9,904 IVF/ICSI cycles using a woman's own eggs, had a 36.5% clinical pregnancy rate per cycle started (42.1% per embryo transfer) and a 29.1% live birth rate.
- Among 431 cycles using donor eggs, results were higher: 49.7% became clinically pregnant, 39.8% had a live birth, and 18.4% resulted in a healthy, full-term single baby.
- In 3,738 frozen embryo transfer cycles using a woman's own eggs, 26.0% became clinically pregnant and 19.8% had a live birth.
- Multiples made up 27.4% of known births in this registry, at least 1,089 in total across every ART cycle type, with 38 high-order (triplets or a quadruplet).
- Chance of at least one infant dying around birth, by delivery: 1.7% singletons, 2.9% twins, 10.5% triplets or quadruplets (multiple vs. singleton: RR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2-2.9, P=0.004).
Interpretation
This is a national registry report. The dataset is not a controlled trial. Every Canadian fertility clinic sent in its own case data for 2008, using shared international definitions. Reporting was voluntary, and cycles with no known outcome were dropped from some rates. So the true rates could differ slightly from what is shown here. The report breaks results down by procedure type, female age, embryo number, and diagnosis. The registry counts what happened. The report does not test why. The numbers do not compare these outcomes with pregnancies reached without treatment, and they cannot explain any single couple's result.
RRM Context
This registry counts outcomes of IVF, ICSI, and frozen embryo transfer cycles, which bypass conception in the body. The registry records the diagnosis behind each cycle, such as male factor, tubal factor, or ovulatory disorder. But it does not investigate or treat the cause behind that diagnosis. Restorative reproductive medicine asks a different question: what is happening in the body that led to it. The dataset describes IVF's own results. The numbers do not describe what a diagnostic workup would find.
Abstract
This eighth annual report of the Canadian ART Register (CARTR) covers ART cycles performed in Canadian centres in the 2008 calendar year and submitted to CARTR. All 28 Canadian assisted reproductive technology (ART) clinics participated in CARTR for 2008, and a total of 15,000 cycles was reported to CARTR. The report states that the IVF Directors Group of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS) directs the CARTR programme, that participating ART centres support it financially, and that participation of ART centres in CARTR is voluntary. Clinical pregnancy, live birth and multiple birth outcomes are reported separately for IVF/ICSI cycles using the woman's own oocytes, IVF/ICSI cycles using donor oocytes and frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles, along with trends in outcomes over four years.
