Chances Of Pregnancy Diminish After Multiple Attempts Using Same Fertility Treatment, Study Finds

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 Aug 2010 - 0:00 PDT


The probability that a woman will become pregnant decreases after two or three failed attempts using the same fertility treatment, according to a new study in Fertility and Sterility that offers insight into how many treatment cycles doctors should offer before trying another tactic, Reuters reports.

For the study -- which involved 408 couples at eight infertility centers -- researchers at the University of California-San Francisco analyzed the success rates of three infertility treatments: fertility drugs, intrauterine insemination and in-vitro fertilization. Of the participating couples, 21% did not undergo any of the three treatments. The total pregnancy rate across the group was 28% over 18 months.

Couples who underwent one to two cycles of fertility-drug treatment had a pregnancy rate of 85%, while IUI couples and IVF couples had success rates of 71% and 59%, respectively, after one attempt. However, according to Reuters, "the advantage of each of the three treatments declined after a certain number of attempts." For example, six couples who received three or more rounds of fertility drugs had a pregnancy rate of 29%, while 35% of the 52 couples who attempted IVF three or more times achieved pregnancy.

The findings show that individual fertility treatments have "diminishing success" over time, according to lead author James Smith, an assistant professor of urology at UCSF. Smith suggested that "[i]f couples are not getting pregnant after several cycles of each, a change to a different strategy is probably warranted" (Norton, Reuters, 8/4).

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