Establishing a national in vitro fertilization registry: methodological problems and analysis of success rates

A national registry for in vitro fertilization (IVF) was established in France in January 1986 and has been in operation since that date. During 1987, data on 14,763 attempts were collected from 72 teams, representing 80 per cent of all French IVF activity. In this registry, a form is completed for every oocyte recovery attempt, containing information about the infertility diagnosis, the attempt itself and its result. This paper presents results for the years 1986 and 1987 and studies the relationship between pregnancy occurrence and some couple or cycle characteristics. Methodological aspects are discussed, concerning the possible sources of bias, and the analysis of results. Results obtained in this registry are compared with those from other similar registries.