A major new report on assisted reproduction in Europe shows increased use of procedures, a conference has heard.
The figures were reported by Dr Christian de Geyter and colleagues to the conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Vienna, Austria.
They used figures from national registries on over 800,000 treatment cycles in 2016, leading to 165,000 babies.
Analysis showed a rise in the use of in vitro fertilisation and intracytoplasmic sperm injection – but success rates have levelled off.
Currently the likelihood of pregnancy is 27% after in vitro fertilisation and 24% after intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
These rates are slightly lower than those for previous years, and “continue a recent trend of conventional in vitro fertilisation cycles performing better than intracytoplasmic sperm injection”, say the authors.
On the other hand, they add that there is an increased use of treatments using embryos that are cryopreserved in storage and thawed for later transfer. The pregnancy rate after frozen embryo transfer is currently 31%.
This form of treatment is likely to rise, state the authors, as clinics are increasingly likely to offer it.
Assisted reproduction is most often used in Spain – 140,909 treatment cycles in 2016 – followed by Russia (121,235 cycles) and France (104,733).
The UK was not included in this analysis but carries out about 60,000 cycles per year.
Findings were presented yesterday (25 June) by Dr de Geyter at a European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting in Vienna, Austria.
Dr de Geyter says: “Success rates have stabilised. The biggest upwards movement, however, is from treatments with frozen eggs, which have been revolutionised by the widespread introduction of vitrification.”
He added that: “Only a minority of European countries meet the need for advanced fertility treatments.”
The conference has heard that evidence for the benefits of freezing is limited.
Abstract: O-145: European IVF monitoring of ART
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