Be a surrogate. Understand your chance of success.
Whether you are trying to have a baby yourself or you are a surrogate helping a family form, many people don’t take the time or know how to understand how likely it is that a baby will actually be born! To help you, Forward Fertility works hard to take on surrogates and parents who have a good chance of success. Click here to apply to be a surrogate today!
Be a surrogate with Forward Fertility – Understand your chance of success.
As a surrogacy agency, based in Madison, Wisconsin and working with surrogates in Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, Forward Fertility is here to help clients and surrogates understand the likelihood of success.
Looking back at our 2019-2021 surrogate matches, 82% of our surrogates delivered a baby or are currently in the second trimester (as of Spring 2022). 64% of our surrogates who matched got pregnant on the first try! This is higher than the national average for patients using donor eggs. 14% of our surrogates conceived on transfer number two and 4% conceived on the third transfer.
We know it’s not always great news. Unfortunately, 14% of our matches dissolved without a pregnancy. Two of these matches dissolved related to COVID concerns. Interestingly, of the matches that ended with out a pregnancy, 42% were from one individual IVF clinic. In considering these findings, we have discontinued working with that clinic out of concerns for poor success rates. Four percent of our matches included in this 2019-2021 time frame are still working on conception. As a result, we continue to support them through the process and wish them success.
As you can see, Forward Fertility works hard to match surrogates in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa so they have a great chance of success. To do so, we work with parents with embryos at IVF clinics with excellent records of success. We carefully monitor this over time, making changes as needed. Currently, we work with IVF clinics in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and New Jersey.
CDC Success Rates – Specific IVF clinics vs. the National Average
If you are considering being a surrogate, your agency should give you clear data on your chance of success before you match. Keep in mind, the data is always a little ‘old’ since it is not tabulated until the LIVE BIRTH occurs from the IVF treatment. So, 2019 data is usually published at in 2021. Keep in mind, too, each parent will have their OWN chance of success (embryo quality, medical history, etc.).
This is an example of the information that is provided to all Forward Fertility surrogates who are matching with a particular client:
2019 Final Data – CLINIC NAME
Source: www.cdc.gov
CLINIC NAME: 67.2% of embryo transfers (using frozen embryos and an egg donor) resulted in a singleton live birth.
National Average: 42.6% of embryo transfers (using frozen embryos and an egg donor) resulted in a singleton live birth.
Interestingly, sometimes the Parents-to-be are surprised to see these statistics! Every client should ask their IVF clinic what the national average is. Parents should know the specific IVF clinic success rate, too. Finally, your own personal chance of success must be discussed (it may be higher or lower than your IVF clinic average.).
IVF Success Rate calculator
Click on this link to discover YOUR chance of success with IVF.
If you are a surrogate, select Other as the diagnosis. Click on all diagnoses that apply to you.
You can see age, BMI, previous number of pregnancies, cause of infertility impacts the chance of success.
Or, you can cut and paste the link, too: https://www.cdc.gov/art/ivf-success-estimator/index.html
As of April 2022, Christie’s chance of pregnancy (as a 47-year-old woman with no history of IVF cycles and endometriosis) through IVF is 2% after 1 cycle, 4% after 2 IVF cycles, and 6% chance after 3 IVF cycles. Her eggs are unlikely to have success.
On the other hand, if we model a typical Forward Fertility surrogate, 34-year-old, normal BMI, two previous pregnancies and deliveries and using donor eggs, the chance after 1 transfer is 50% and the chance after 3 transfers is 88%.
Selecting the family you help, the surrogate who helps you, the IVF clinic, the agency….each decision is important! Make sure you get the information you need to make the best choice for you. Read Common Questions from surrogates here.