Study Finds 20% of Women Achieve Natural Conception After IVF Treatment

An Oxford Academic meta-analysis published this week found that natural conception after live birth via assisted reproductive technology (ART) was common, occurring in 20% of women. Looking at long-term data from 5,180 women, researchers showed that natural conception pregnancies were vastly underestimated in women who had previously received ART, suggesting that physicians should inform their patients of the greater likelihood of pregnancy after in-vitro fertilization or other ART treatment.

Using 11 studies from 1997 through 2019, it was found that post-ART live births ranged from 12% to 33%. Eight of the studies used in the meta-analysis examined IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), with two others examining IVF only and one examining ICSI only.  Seven studies of the included studies also indicated that most natural conception pregnancies occurred within the first 2 or 3 years after ART-assisted birth.

Researchers responsible for the analysis posited that ovarian stimulation during IVF may improve reproductive function and that pregnancy-induced endocrinological changes may increase the chances of later natural conception.

“The increasing trend in accessibility and use of IVF, including growing subgroups of women who use IVF primarily for reasons other than subfertility, may cause the incidence of natural conception pregnancy after ART live birth to increase further. National, data-linked studies are needed to provide more accurate estimates of this and analyze associated factors and trends over time,” the authors concluded.

Roughly 80,000 births occur via IVF in the United States each year, or around 1 – 2% of the approximately 4,000,000 live births recorded annually.

The average cost of one cycle of IVF ranges between $10,000 and $15,000, with some specialized procedures costing significantly more. Patients also often need anywhere from 2 to 3 rounds of IVF before achieving pregnancy, and the percentage of live births is little more than 50% for women who have undergone successful conception.

As women have begun to delay their choice to have children until later in life, the rate of ART-assisted pregnancies has steadily risen, and technology has allowed for more successful pregnancies in older women. New studies into lifestyle and fertility have also found that positive changes in BMI, exercise frequency, and metabolic health can improve the chances of natural conception for both men and women as they age.

In industry, companies on the cutting edge of ART treatment have begun to use personalized data analytics and artificial intelligence to predict the best time to perform a procedure and maximize a patient’s chances of live birth. All signs now point to the ART industry growing rapidly as analysts foresee the market size nearly doubling in the coming decade.