Medically reviewed by Timothy Hickman, MD, Founding Physician and Medical Director, CCRM Fertility of Houston
If you’ve been thinking about fertility care, it may seem overwhelming to know where to start with so much information available, especially when it comes to choosing where to pursue treatment. As with any healthcare decision, you’ll likely begin by researching clinics, exploring patient experiences, and learning about physicians before choosing where to go for treatment.
While those perspectives are valuable, fertility care also offers something many other specialties don’t: objective data on treatment outcomes. In vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles and egg freezing cycles are tracked and published by a non-profit organization called the Society of Reproductive Technology (SART), giving patients another tool to consider when thinking about where to receive care.
Here’s an explainer on the purpose of SART, what these numbers tell us (and don’t tell us), and how to interpret and utilize this data when deciding where to seek treatment.
What is SART?
SART is comprised of a group of US IVF clinics that have agreed to follow the best practices for IVF. They collect, analyze, and publish IVF success rate data and then forward it on to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The organization compiles information for up to 400,000 IVF cycles each year and shares it by center through a comprehensive online database for prospective patients, medical professionals, and the public to view.
Clinics track each cycle from beginning (start of stim medications) to end (negative pregnancy test or live birth). Note that because pregnancies must be tracked through delivery, there is a delay of up to two years before a given year’s IVF data is submitted, collected, analyzed, and published; the data for 2026 will be reported in late 2027 or early 2028, and the current data on the SART website is predictive for IVF cycles performed in 2024.
Why SART membership matters
- Medical Director who’s a board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist (REI)
- High-complexity IVF lab director with a PhD (HCLD certification)
- Conform to all standards put forth by SART, as well as pass rigorous testing through the College of American Pathologists (CAP) or Joint Commission every two years
If a clinic you’re considering is not a member of SART, that’s a red flag.
How to read SART data
Before interpreting SART tables, the tables are broken down into what happened during each egg retrieval: How many cycles were cancelled before egg retrieval, how many eggs were obtained, how many embryos were created, etc.
The next set of tables are the embryo transfer tables. Each of them describes the type of transfer that took place: Fresh embryo on Day 3 or Day 5 or frozen embryo on Day 3 or Day 5 and whether or not preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) was done.
Currently, egg freezing data only includes how many eggs were obtained per retrieval and not live birth data because frozen eggs are often not used for years before they are eventually fertilized. SART is working on live birth outcome data for the frozen eggs that were eventually used. Hopefully, that data will be available in the next year.
It also helps to understand how SART defines and reports an IVF cycle. SART defines an IVF cycle as “an egg retrieval and the transfer of all the embryos from that cycle.” The possible outcomes of an IVF cycle include:
- Not pregnant
- Pregnant and deliver a baby
- Pregnant and have a miscarriage
When viewing a clinic’s report on the SART website, you’ll notice you can filter results based on factors such as:
- Age
- Using your own eggs or donor eggs
- Fresh versus frozen embryo transfer
- Certain infertility diagnoses, such as male factor or tubal factor infertility
These filters are important because IVF success rates vary significantly depending on a patient’s age, medical history, and treatment plan. Looking at data that most closely reflects your own circumstances will provide the most meaningful comparison.
You’ll also see both single-cycle success rates and cumulative success rates. A single-cycle success rate looks at the outcome of an individual IVF cycle, while a cumulative success rate accounts for all embryo transfers resulting from one egg retrieval, including frozen embryos used later. Because multiple embryos may be created from one retrieval, cumulative success rates can provide a more complete picture of the likelihood of achieving a live birth from that treatment cycle.
@ccrmfertility Dr. Timothy Hickman from #CCRMFertility of Houston also happens to be the Past President of #SART. So what exactly is SART and what do they do? Find out here ⬆️ #CCRM #FertilityTok #FertilityJourney #FertilityDoctor #FertilitySpecialist #Fertility #Infertility #Houston ♬ original sound – CCRM Fertility
Interpreting IVF success rates
The goal of IVF is to have a healthy singleton pregnancy and full-term baby in as few cycles as possible. When looking at a clinic’s success rates on the SART website, keep these tips in mind to get a better idea of your predictive success per IVF cycle:
- Compare clinics using data for your age group
- Pay particular attention to IVF clinics with a high volume of cycles; you want to choose a care team that has experience with a large quantity of patients like you
- Compare results to national averages rather than focusing only on another clinic’s numbers (more on this below)
- Discuss success rates with your physician so they can be interpreted in the context of your individual medical history
Comparing success rates
You shouldn’t compare one clinic’s success rates to another because those two clinics can have very different patient populations. Instead, you should compare the clinic you’re looking at to where their numbers fall compared to the national average.
SART even warns about this with a disclaimer on their website:
“Accurate and complete reporting of ART success rates is complicated. Clinics may have differences in patient selection, treatment approaches, and cycle reporting practices which may inflate or lower pregnancy rates relative to another clinic. This report is best understood in consult with your physician.”
For example, one clinic might primarily treat patients with a strong prognosis (e.g., patients with an AMH above 1 or 2), while another may accept a larger number of complex or difficult cases. Because SART data cannot fully account for these differences, it’s important to understand its limitations. SART data does not capture:
- Types of patients treated
- Thaw success rates for frozen eggs and embryos
- Number of egg banking cycles
Clinical factors that affect outcomes
Beyond the factors reported by SART, several aspects of fertility treatment can also influence IVF outcomes. Maternal age is the biggest factor affecting IVF success, but it’s not the only variable. Other factors that determine whether a transfer will result in a positive pregnancy—and factors which are not tracked by SART—include:
- The IVF lab, including how the eggs arevitrified (flash frozen) and thawed and how the embryos are cultured (developed after fertilization). This includes consistency in the lab that mimics the natural environment, lab cultures, proper PH levels, no contaminants, etc. (learn more about CCRM’s strict lab protocols here)
- Stimulation protocols and tailoring the protocol to each patient
- The skill of the embryologist handling the embryo and of the physician performing the embryo transfer
All this to say that while a clinic’s success rates matter, there are a lot of nuances to consider when interpreting IVF success rates and choosing where to seek care.
CCRM Fertility IVF success rates
This is due in part to CCRM having the nation’s only fully integrated network of IVF, Genetics, and Research labs.
*Source: SART 2023 Preliminary Data; Note each market includes competitors within a 100-mile radius of CCRM’s clinic; 1. Success rates are based on singleton live births (% of transfers) weighted based on CCRM’s patient age mix
All CCRM patients’ preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) is performed at CCRM Genetics, our proprietary in-house lab based in our Colorado flagship, rather than outsourced through a third-party.
We perform the testing ourselves with rigorous standards and quality control unique to our lab, delivering high clinical confidence in the results we receive on every embryo. Essentially, we can count on clinically meaningful PGT results with high accuracy. This is also reflected in the only 2.8% of embryos tested for PGT-A at CCRM identified as mosaic, a combination of euploid and aneuploid.
The bottom line
SART is an amazing resource in helping provide prospective fertility patients with information about various clinics and their success rates. These stats can help predict an individual’s chances of IVF success and guide informed decision-making.
However, it’s not as black and white as simply choosing the clinic with the highest success rates and best chances of getting you to baby. There are some limitations to how SART data is reported and presented, and it would be unfair to simply compare one clinic’s success rates to another when there are other factors to consider.
We encourage you to review the latest available SART data at the CCRM Fertility clinic near you to get a better idea of our exceptional outcomes and how they compare to national averages.
If you’re ready to learn more or to book an appointment with a Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility specialist at CCRM, schedule your consultation here.
