Research and data
Publication update: Fertility Trends
An interim report looking at treatments for 2020 using provisional HFEA data was published in May 2022 (Impact of COVID-19 on fertility treatment 2020) and we expect to publish the next Fertility Trends by summer 2023.
All HFEA licensed clinics are required by law to provide us with their fertility treatment and outcomes data. We store this in our Register, thought to be the largest database of fertility treatment in the world. In 2021, we launched a new data submission system for clinics and migrated our data to a new database. This means we now need to upgrade our systems to enable us to make better use of our data for patients, clinicians and researchers – this work is due to be completed in winter 2022/23.
The HFEA will not be publishing our usual annual Register update – Fertility Trends – in 2022. The most recent analysis of success rates is Fertility Trends 2019 (published in May 2021).
Impact of COVID-19 on fertility treatment 2020
This report looks at changes in UK fertility treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, including treatment numbers, funding, and donation.
National Patient Survey 2021
Survey of UK fertility patients, 2 November – 7 December 2021.
Multiple births in fertility treatment 2019
This report looks at changes in multiple births over time, including differences by patient age, egg source, ethnicity and funding.
Fertility treatment 2019: trends and figures (published May 2021)
This is our annual publication covering key information about the number and type of patients treated, the different treatments they had and the pregnancy rates for fertility treatment.
View the Fertility treatment 2019: trends and figures report here.
Previous editions
- Fertility treatment 2018: trends and figures (HTML)
- Fertility treatment 2017: trends and figures.pdf | 3,775KB
- Fertility treatment 2017: trends and figures underlying graph data.xlsx | 116KB
- Fertility treatment 2014 - 2016: trends and figures.pdf | 2,223KB
- Fertility treatment in 2014 - 2016 Datasheet.xlsx | 182KB
- Fertility treatment in 2014 - 2016 graph datasheet.xlsx | 92KB
- Fertility treatment 2014: Trends and figures.pdf | 1,344KB
- Fertility Trends 2014 Datasheet.xlsx | 88KB
- HFEA fertility trends 2013.pdf | 2,608KB
- HFEA fertility trends 2012.pdf | 1,951KB
- HFEA fertility trends 2011.pdf | 1,358KB
Ethnic diversity in fertility treatment 2018
This report looks at how access to, and outcomes of fertility treatment, differ by ethnic group.
View the Ethnic diversity in fertility treatment 2018 report here.
Family formations in fertility treatment 2018 (published September 2020)
This report covers UK in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and donor insemination (DI) statistics for heterosexual, female same-sex and single patients.
View the Family formations in fertility treatment 2018 report here.
The State of the fertility sector 2020/21 (published: November 2021)
Our "State of the sector" report provides an overview of the UK's fertility sector for 2020/21
View the State of the fertility sector 2020/2021 report
Previous editions
Download the State of the fertility sector report 2019/2020
Download the State of the fertility sector report 2018/2019
Download the State of the fertility sector report 2018/2019 underlying data
Trends in egg and sperm donation 2016 (released March 2019)
This report provides key information about the number and type of people newly registering as sperm and egg donors in the UK. It also gives information on trends in using donated sperm and eggs in fertility treatment, including how many treatments have been carried out and the demographics of patients.
This report complements our flagship annual publication, Fertility treatment: trends and figures, which provides key information about the number and type of fertility treatments that have been carried out across the UK and how many of these have led to a birth.
The national patient survey (released December 2018)
In September and October 2018 in partnership with YouGov we carried out the country's first ever national fertility patient survey, which invited people who had recently had fertility treatment and their partners to share their views on their treatment, covering every stage of their treatment.
In our report 'Pilot national fertility patient survey' you can read detailed analysis of the responses that we received from over 1000 fertility patients and their partners.
National patient survey data sets
you can also download and read the full response data set. Please note this data has been anonymised to protect the identity of respondents.
Egg freezing in fertility treatment (released September 2018)
Our egg freezing report covers the trends and figures relating to egg freezing and the use of thawed eggs in fertility treatment from 2010 to 2016.
When looking at success rates for frozen eggs, numbers tend to be quite low. The technology for egg freezing has also improved over the years which means older data isn’t comparable to current success rates. We advise patients to look at success rates for fresh IVF cycles with patients using their own eggs in their age band. We consider these rates to be more reliable as there are much higher numbers of fresh embryo transfers each year compared to egg freezing. This information can be found in Choose a Fertility Clinic and in our Fertility Trends report.
Download the full report (PDF 784 KB)
Download the patient friendly version of the report (PDF 1.07 MB)
Download the supplement to the report (PDF 92 KB)
Download the data sheet of this report (XLSX 56 KB)
Improving outcomes for fertility patients: multiple births
A multiple birth (twins, triplets or more) is the single biggest health risk associated with fertility treatment. Find out more about the risks of multiple births.
We've worked with the sector to reduce the proportion of multiple births and this report summarises our achievements to date.
Download the multiple births datasheet for 2015 (XLSX 46 KB)
Adverse incidents in fertility clinics: lessons to learn
The vast majority of fertility treatments are carried out without any problems occurring but, as in any clinical setting, mistakes can happen. Most people understand there are risks associated with any kind of healthcare, but they also rightly expect healthcare professionals to learn from those mistakes.
This annual report provides details of clinic incidents, allowing clinics to learn from each other and improve patient care.
Find out more about us
Review date: 18 May 2024