There are a lot of factors which can affect the chance for IVF success.
Most people are aware, for example, that older women have lower IVF success rates than younger
women. The same is true for women who are obese. What about your race? Are your chances better
or worse if you are white, black, Hispanic or Asian? The answer may surprise you. Stay tuned.
First of all, it is important to point out that the majority of people who are treated
with IVF in the USA are white. In the United States, most IVF cycles, between 70 and 75%,
are in white women. This is important because it means when we see a study about IVF
pregnancy rates, most of the study participants are likely to be white.
The results, therefore, may not be useful for people of other races.
Some studies, however, have specifically tried to look at race as a factor in IVF success rates.
This study looked at IVF success rates in a single large IVF center. Over 4000 women
were included in the study. 74% were white, 5% were black, 13% were Asian and 7% were Hispanic.
There were some other differences in these groups that could affect the results. For example,
black women were slightly older and BMI was higher in the black and Hispanic groups and lower in the
Asian group. The authors tried to control for these differences when they did their analysis.
What were the results? The average number of
eggs retrieved was lower in Asian women. Black women however had a lower percentage of mature
eggs and a lower fertilization rate. Black women also had a higher cancellation rate
What about pregnancies? Compared to white women, Asian women had about a 5% lower pregnancy rate.
Black women had a 12% lower pregnancy rate. In addition, black women had double the chance
for miscarriage. Ultimately, when they looked at the chance for a live birth,
White and Hispanic women had the highest rate, Asians were a little lower and
Black women had the lowest chance about half the live birth rate of white women
This study was important because all of the IVF cycles were conducted at a single IVF
practice. Therefore, the doctors and protocols were similar for
all of the patients and they all used the same IVF lab. It does bring up the question
as to whether these results are similar at other IVF centers. It seems that they are
In this study, researchers used the data from the US IVF registry over several years.
As you can see, they also found that white and Hispanic women had the highest pregnancy rates.
Asians were lower and again black women had the lowest rate. They also found that Black
women had the highest miscarriage rates and the live birth rates were the lowest.
Could this just be something to do with the United States? Again,
it doesn't seem so. This is data from the IVF registry in the United Kingdom. The groups are
not exactly the same as in the U.S. registry but again white women had the highest live birth rate,
Asians were lower and Black women had the lowest rate
Our InfertilityTV bottom Line is this. A woman’s race does impact her chances for IVF success.
The highest chances seem to occur in white and hispanic women. Asian women have a lower chance
and Black women have the lowest success. We do not know precisely why these rates are different.
This is an area that needs to be studied more closely