That “70% Success Rate” Probably Isn’t What You Think
You’ve seen it on clinic websites. “70% success rate.” “Industry-leading outcomes.” It sounds impressive. But what does it actually mean?
Here’s the truth: clinics pick the number that looks best. The math behind fertility statistics is messy enough that they can spin it a lot of different ways.
This isn’t fraud. It’s just how a complicated industry presents itself. But it can lead you to the wrong clinic — and that mistake is expensive.
Three Numbers, Three Very Different Stories
When a clinic talks about “success,” they could mean three different things.
Success per egg retrieval. Out of every patient who had eggs retrieved, what share had a live birth? This is the most honest number. It counts everyone who started — including people who got zero usable embryos.
Success per embryo transfer. Out of every patient who had an embryo put back in, what share had a live birth? This looks better because it cuts out the patients who never made it to transfer. If a clinic has bad lab quality and half their embryos die before transfer, those patients disappear from this number.
Success per “intended egg retrieval.” This includes patients who cancelled mid-cycle. It’s the strictest number — and you almost never see it on a clinic’s website.
A clinic can have the same actual results and look wildly different depending on which number they show you.
The Age Trick
Here’s another thing clinics do. They show you success rates for their best-performing age group.
IVF success drops sharply with age. A woman under 35 has roughly a 50% chance of a live birth per cycle. By 40, that’s closer to 20%. By 42, it’s under 10%.
If a clinic serves mostly younger patients, their overall rate looks great. If they take on harder cases — older patients, patients who failed elsewhere — their rate looks worse. But that second clinic might actually be the better one.
The only fair comparison is same age vs. same age. Ideally the same age and the same diagnosis.
“Pregnancy Rate” vs. “Live Birth Rate”
These sound similar. They’re not.
A “pregnancy” in fertility medicine means a positive blood test. It doesn’t mean a healthy baby came home. Pregnancies can end in miscarriage. A clinic can have a high pregnancy rate and a much lower live birth rate.
The only number that matters to most people is live birth rate. That’s the one to ask for.
Donor Egg Cycles Inflate the Numbers
Donor egg cycles have much higher success rates than regular IVF. The eggs come from younger donors, so the quality is better.
If a clinic does a lot of donor egg cycles, their overall success rate will look higher. That’s not a bad thing — donor egg IVF is a real treatment. But it means you can’t compare a clinic that mostly does donor cycles with one that mostly treats patients using their own eggs.
Ask clinics to show you their rates specifically for your situation: your age, using your own eggs — or with donor eggs if that applies to you.
Where the Real Numbers Come From
There’s a great source for honest clinic data. It just doesn’t get talked about enough.
Every licensed fertility clinic in the U.S. must report their results to the CDC. Every retrieval, every transfer, every live birth — broken down by age.
We wrote a whole post about it: The CDC Publishes Every Clinic’s IVF Results. Almost Nobody Looks. That’s the right starting point when you’re comparing clinics — not the marketing page.
Questions to Ask Any Clinic
Before you commit, ask these four questions:
- What’s your live birth rate per egg retrieval for my age group?
- Does that include donor egg cycles or only patients using their own eggs?
- How does that compare to the national average for my age group?
- What’s your rate for patients who’ve failed at other clinics?
A clinic that won’t answer these questions clearly is a red flag.
The Bottom Line
Don’t let one big number sell you on a clinic. Ask what that number actually measures. Ask for your specific age group. Ask for live births, not just pregnancies.
The clinics worth trusting are the ones that walk you through the real data without flinching. And you don’t have to take their word for it — independent government data exists for every clinic in the country.
Browse our directory of 522 fertility clinics to see CDC-sourced success data alongside location, services, and contact info. Or use our free matching tool to find clinics that fit your specific situation.