Why do IVF success rates vary so much from clinic to clinic?

One reason why IVF success rates vary is because some clinics are much better than others, because of their superior expertise and depth of experience. Remember, the success rates don’t depend upon just the doctor’s clinical skills – they are also affected by how good the embryologist is, and the coordination between the laboratory and the clinical team. Sadly, many IVF clinics depend upon “travelling embryologists”, and they don’t have a full-time embryologist. What’s even worse is that patients are clueless about the fact that such a key professional is missing !

The other reason is because their success rate is a number which a lot of clinics will manipulate, because they understand that the higher the rate they quote to the patient, the better their chance of getting the patient to come to them for treatment.

Because there no regulation of IVF clinics in India today, no one checks whether the doctor's claims have any bearing with reality ! This is why clinics quote completely fabricated, outrageous, and inflated numbers in order to attract patients, and patients have no way of verifying or checking whether what the doctor's saying is true or not.

This is why you will see numbers like 60% per cycle and 80% per cycle being bandied about on their websites - numbers which are being fudged. Sadly, sadly patients aren't sophisticated enough to understand that the doctor is lying to them !

The only way you can protect yourself is to ask better quality questions, to make sure that your doctor is being honest with you. However, there’s still no way of verifying whether what the doctor's saying is the truth or not. This can be a vexing problem, and actually ends up penalizing honest doctors , who want to be as transparent as possible with their patients.

They take the time and trouble to explain to the patient that while their pregnancy rates are much higher for good prognosis patients, the pregnancy rates will drop for older women, and those with poor ovarian reserve. Sadly, patients don’t want to hear the truth, as a result of which many of them get taken for a ride by unscrupulous IVF clinics.

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