In October each year, a report compiled by the University of NSW into the state of Assisted Reproduction Technology in Australia and New Zealand is published; 2017 was no exception.
Its source is the Australian and New Zealand Assisted Reproduction Database (ANZARD) to which fertility centres across Australia supply data. Here in WA, Concept Fertility Centre, Fertility Great Southern, Fertility North, Fertility Specialists South, Fertility Specialists WA, Hollywood Fertility Centre, PIVET and the Keogh Institute contributed to these 2015 statistics, which unfortunately are not broken down by states.
- 71,479 and 6,242 ART treatment cycles were reported in Australian and New Zealand clinics (respectively), a 5.6% increase in Australia and 6% increase in NZ on 2014.
- The proportion of cycles where all oocytes or embryos are cryopreserved for potential future use (freeze-all cycles) has increased from 5% of initiated fresh cycles in 2011 to 17.2% in 2015.
- Of the 77,721 initiated cycles, 22.8% (17,726) resulted in a clinical pregnancy and 18.1% (14,040) in a live delivery. The overall clinical pregnancy rate for cycles reaching embryo transfer was 31.9%. The live delivery rate per initiated autologous fresh cycle was 17% after freeze-all cycles were excluded. The live delivery rate for fresh cycles reaching embryo transfer was 23.7%. The live delivery rate per initiated autologous thaw cycle was 25.3% and for thaw cycles reaching embryo transfer cycle was 26.8%.
- Women used their own oocytes or embryos (autologous cycles) in 94.5% of treatments.
- The number of cycles where embryos were selected using preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) increased by 65.5% from 3488 in 2014 to 5773 in 2015.
- The average age of women undergoing autologous cycles was 35.8 years in 2015, similar to previous years. The average age of women undergoing ART treatment using donor oocytes or embryos was 40.6 years; 24.8% women who underwent an autologous cycle in 2015 were aged 40 or older. The average age of the male partner was 38.1 years, with 33.8% aged 40 or older.
- For women aged under 30, the live delivery rate per embryo transfer was 38.4% for autologous fresh cycles and 32.6% for autologous thaw cycles. For women aged over 44, the live delivery rate was 0.7% and 7.6% per embryo transfer for autologous fresh and thaw cycles.
- 14,791 babies were born (including 14,655 live-born babies) following ART treatment; 78.8% of live-born babies were full-term singletons of normal birthweight.
- Multiple deliveries have decreased by 36% from 6.9% in 2011 to 4.4% in 2015. This was achieved by clinicians and patients shifting to single embryo transfer, with the proportion increasing from 73.2% in 2011 to 85.7% in 2015.
- The average gestational age of babies born following autologous and recipient embryo transfer cycles was 38.1 weeks; the average age for all babies born in Australia in 2014 was 38.6 weeks.
- The average birthweight for live-born babies to women who had autologous and recipient embryo transfer cycles was 3219 grams; 11.2% of these babies were low birthweight (less than 2500 grams); the average birthweight was 3305 grams and 2299 grams for live-born ART singletons and twins respectively. These were slightly lower than the mean birthweight of all live-born singletons (3380 grams) and twins (2347 grams).