Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 1, 2026
Modified MicroSecure Vitrification: A Safe, Simple and Highly Effective Cryopreservation Procedure for Human Blastocysts
Published on: March 2, 2017
Cost-effectiveness of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer
B W Mol1, G J Bonsel, J A Collins
1Academic Hospital Utrecht, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. bwml@knmg.nl
Objective:
Economic analyses in reproductive medicine often fail to take into account the chances of treatment-independent conception. We compared the cost-effectiveness of several realistic strategies involving IVF using no treatment as the reference strategy.
Design:
A decision tree was constructed for a subfertile couple in which the clinician had to decide whether to offer treatment with IVF. No treatment at all was used as the reference strategy.
Setting:
An analytic decision-making framework.
Patient(S):
Hypothetical subfertile couples.
Intervention(S):
Two potential treatment approaches: three IVF cycles performed as soon as possible, or no treatment performed initially and then three or four IVF cycles performed if a pregnancy resulting in a live birth does not occur naturally after 212 years.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
The cost of establishing one pregnancy that results in a live birth.
Result(S):
The cost-effectiveness of IVF depended not only on the costs and expected success rates of IVF itself but also on the couple-specific chances of treatment-independent conception. Consequently, the cost-effectiveness of IVF is strongly dependent on the age of the female partner. This finding corresponds with everyday clinical experience.
Conclusion(S):
Economic analyses in reproductive medicine should take into account the option of providing no treatment.
