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07 December 2007

HFEA issues latest Find a Clinic guide with 2005 success figures

Demand for fertility treatment continues to increase, along with both live birth and multiple birth rates, according to the 2005 IVF and Donor Insemination treatment figures published today by the HFEA, the UK's fertility regulator.  These figures are issued as part of the latest update of the 'Find a Clinic' interactive clinic search facility on the HFEA website.

Find a Clinic includes details of every licensed fertility clinic in the UK – the services offered with details of treatments given, and numbers of children born. In addition to data for individual clinics, overall figures for the UK are also available.

When people start to experience fertility problems they eagerly seek out all the information they can to find out what options they have and where they can find the treatment they need. This new data, alongside the HFEA Guide to Infertility, provides the single and comprehensive source of information that each and every centre has provided.

The 2005 treatment and outcome figures are based on 41,932 cycles of treatment given to 32,626 women between January and December 2005.

During this period:

• Patient numbers were up 6% (30861 patients in 2004) and total number of IVF treatments was up 4.5% on 2004 (40164 cycles in 2004)
• 9,058 births saw a total of 11,262 children born following IVF treatment.

This gives an overall live birth rate for all IVF of 21.6%, up 0.9% from 2004 (20.6%) on the previous year. For under 35s, this figure is 29.6%, up 1.8% from 2004 (28.1%)

• 606 births saw a total of 645 children born following donor insemination - down by 11% on last year (2004 – 707 births with 749 children born).  Newer treatments such as ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm  Injection) mean that partner's sperm can now be used in more cases.
• The number of sperm donors continues to increase with 307 new donors registering in 2006 – up 19% from 2005 (259 donors registering).
• There were more than 1.14 million views of the HFEA Find a Clinic website guide.hfea.gov.uk – with each visitor looking at 13 pages on average, showing that patients are doing thorough searches across a  number of clinics.
• 70% of patients say that the interactive Find a Clinic information is either very useful or useful.

The increase in multiple birth rates follows this week's announcement that the HFEA is working with the professional bodies to develop a three year strategy to reduce the number of multiple births. In 2005, 24% of IVF births were a twin or a triplet, up from 22.7% in 2004.  The Authority called for a national strategy to reduce multiple births from all fertility treatments including those not regulated by the HFEA (such as Intra Uterine Insemination and prescribed fertility drugs). For licensed clinics the aim is to reduce this to 10% or lower after three years starting in 2009.

Alan Doran, Interim Chief Executive of the HFEA said:

"Good and comprehensive information is vital for any patient making choices about their treatment options. The HFEA interactive Find a Clinic search is the comprehensive and expert source of information for patients considering IVF or Donor insemination treatment in the UK. We are committed to provide accessible and useful information for patients as quickly as we can and our speeding up our processes to make this as up-to-date as we possibly can.

"Statistics are just one of the many things patients need to consider when choosing a clinic. Their age, location, which treatments are available and what the clinic offers to support them are also absolutely key to helping them make informed decisions. 

"League tables do not help patients make those choices. Instead, we have an independent, interactive tool which allows patients to tailor the information about clinics to their own circumstances, helping them choose which clinic is best for them.

"Multiple births continue to be a concern because of the increased risk to mothers and babies. That's why we announced this week that we will be working with the professional bodies to develop a strategy to reduce multiple births. We will also review the way our data is presented to ensure that patients and clinics are able to make the most of the information we gather about their treatments."

Ends

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Notes to editors

The HFEA is the independent regulator for IVF treatment and embryo research. Our role is to protect patients and the public interest, to drive improvement in the treatment and research sectors and to provide information to the public and policymakers about treatment and research.

The HFEA was set up in August 1991 as part of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The HFEA's principal tasks are to license and monitor clinics that carry out in vitro fertilisation (IVF), donor insemination (DI) and human embryo research. The HFEA also regulates the storage of gametes (eggs and sperm) and embryos.

• Facts and figures for 2005 clinic data (PDF 44 Kb)
• Visit the Find a clinic search

Page last updated: 11 March 2009

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