In vitro fertilization numbers!

More and more babies are being born after using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).  This mainly includes babies being born after in vitro fertilization (IVF) when a woman’s eggs are fertilized with a man’s sperm inside a dish in a laboratory.  However other techniques that are under the umbrella of ART are procedures like egg donation, surrogacy and egg freezing.  At our annual meeting in the fall of 2016, an estimated 5 million children were born after ART technologies in the previous six years!  This increase is thought to be due to increasing access in developing countries and increasing insurance coverage in many locations.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1% of babies born in the United States each year, so about 60,000, are conceived through ART.  

Kari Sproul von Goeben, M.D.