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06 March 2013

Summary of request

The Authority was asked for the numbers of IUI and DI cycles along with clinical pregnancies and live births, broken down by age group.

HFEA response

Please see the table below containing the data requested for all IUI cycles.

We break down most ‘success rates’ into standard age groups wherever they are published – Choose a Fertility Clinic (CaFC), in our publications, or in response to Requests for Information (RfI).

Clearly, the majority of cycles performed are in the under 40 age groups and as the age increases, the number of women in each group decreases. Where there is only a small number of women in an age group it can make results appear very variable. This is the case in the apparently large difference in success rates in the 43-44 and over 44 groups having unstimulated DI treatment in 2010 on CaFC. The fact that the general trend for treatment to be less successful as women get older is apparently reversed between these two specific groups is likely to be due to the very small numbers of patients being treated.

As well as variability in small numbers, there is also a risk to patient identifiability.  Where the patient numbers are less than 5 we usually act to obscure the number in our reports and responses to RfIs, either by aggregating groups or suppressing the numbers altogether (as we have done in the IUI figures attached).

With the DI figures published in our Figures and Trends report (and on our website under the 'Your treatment & storage options' section, which uses the data), we have aggregated figures for women over 40. This is to enable us to present figures in a consistent manner, which is as percentages of cycles started. If we were to present percentages for each specific older age group, the inherent variability involved in these small numbers could itself be misleading to patients (for instance by suggesting that women over 45 have a better chance of getting pregnant than women aged 43-44, as above). Additionally, percentages could be used to back-calculate data we have otherwise acted to obscure.

• Table showing IUI and DI cycles broken down by age group (xls KB24)

Page last updated: 12 September 2013

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