A clinic’s published success rate is only the starting point. Understanding what it measures, and what it means for your own path to having a baby, is where the real clarity comes in.
The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publish the data behind these rates every year, and reading it correctly means knowing what each number counts.
Because SART and the CDC need a full year to track outcomes before publishing them, the most recent Final data available is usually about two years old. Reports come out as preliminary first and become Final the following year, so 2023 is the most current Final data available as this is written.
What Does a “Success Rate” Count?
Most people assume a success rate means the odds of walking out with a baby. But the word “success” can mean a positive pregnancy test, a clinical pregnancy, or a live birth, depending on the source. Each of those milestones matters on a fertility journey, but they are not the same outcome, and live birth is the one that reflects an actual baby born.
MCRM reported 1,797 total in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles in 2023, with a 91.2% retrieval start report rate. That means the clinic accounts for outcomes on nearly every cycle it started, including cycles that never reached a transfer.
Protocols are built around what each person’s body and history call for, because fertility treatment isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Why Live Birth Is the Number That Matters Most
MCRM’s 2023 data reports live births per intended egg retrieval. Counting this way is the most demanding method available, since it starts the moment a cycle begins, before anyone knows whether that cycle will reach an embryo transfer.
A clinic could report a higher, easier number by counting positive pregnancy tests instead. But MCRM counts the harder way, and for people under 35, that method still produced a live birth rate of approximately 60.4% in 2023, above the national average of 53.2% for that same age group and year.
Why Two Clinics’ Numbers Rarely Mean the Same Thing
SART and the CDC both advise against comparing clinics directly, because no two clinics treat the same population. A comparison of clinic success rates may not be personally applicable because patient medical characteristics, treatment approaches, and entry criteria for ART may vary from clinic to clinic.
In our case, we take on cases more medically complex than a typical program accepts, including diminished ovarian reserve, prior unsuccessful cycles elsewhere, and diagnoses that make treatment harder to predict. A raw number next to a clinic that only accepts straightforward cases tells you almost nothing on its own.
MCRM’s SART disclosure notes two things directly: the clinic encourages some people to complete multiple egg retrievals before transferring an embryo, and a portion of its cycles include preimplantation genetic testing (PGT).
Both practices are linked to better long-term outcomes – and both can also make a single-cycle number look lower than a clinic that skips these steps, simply because more of MCRM’s cycles represent early steps in a longer plan rather than one self-contained attempt.
What a Clinic’s Patient Mix Can Do to the Headline Number
A published rate can look impressive for reasons that have nothing to do with quality of care. Patient selection criteria, how readily a clinic recommends donor eggs, and who gets accepted as a candidate in the first place can all shape a headline number just as much as clinical skill does.
Taking on harder cases and using protocols like PGT often reflects confidence in a program’s approach. Ask any clinic directly how they handle difficult cases before weighing their number against anyone else’s.
Age Is the Number Behind the Number
Age at egg retrieval predicts outcome more than anything else in the data. MCRM’s 2023 figures show this clearly, using a person’s own eggs across all transfers:
- Under 35: approximately 60.4%
- 35 to 37: approximately 44.6%
- 38 to 40: approximately 26.0%
- 41 to 42: approximately 15.6%
Each bracket reflects age at the point of egg retrieval, not transfer. Someone who retrieved eggs at 33 and transfers an embryo years later still falls in the under-35 bracket, per the CDC’s guide to interpreting this data, because it’s the egg’s age the data tracks.
MCRM also tracks this data a second way, using live birth per new patient, a method that begins counting the moment someone starts treatment with MCRM and follows the fuller arc of care from there. For 2023, MCRM’s confirmed SART figures using that method were:
- Under 35: approximately 76.4%
- 35 to 37: approximately 69.3%
- 38 to 40: approximately 36.5%
- 41 to 42: 4 of 17 in that age group, a sample small enough that SART leaves it as a fraction without a rounded percentage attached
Both are accurate, and seeing them side by side is a good example of why one clinic’s number can look different depending on how it’s counted.
Own Eggs and Donor Eggs Are Reported Separately
Own-egg and donor-egg cycles are reported as separate categories, and blending them into one average would distort both numbers. Donor egg cycles tend to run higher because the donor’s age governs egg quality more than the recipient’s does.
MCRM offers both paths, and displays each journey with its own data.
The Fraction Behind Every Percentage
Every success rate is built from two numbers: how many live births happened, and how many cycles get counted as the total. Change the second number, and the same live births produce a different percentage.
For example, if 50 people had a live birth out of 100 cycles that started, that’s a 50% rate. But if only 80 of those 100 cycles actually reached an embryo transfer, counting births against just those 80 transfers would produce a higher rate, 62.5%, even though the same 50 babies were born.
Intended retrieval, the first way of counting, is the broadest and most honest measure, since it includes every cycle that started, even ones that never made it to a transfer.
At MCRM, someone might complete three separate egg retrievals, banking embryos from each one, before transferring a single embryo. SART counts each of those three retrievals as its own cycle, even though all three are part of one plan working toward a single pregnancy.
A cumulative rate corrects for this by adding together every live birth connected to that original retrieval, including any transfers that came later. A single-cycle rate only counts one transfer at a time, and can understate what someone’s full plan actually achieved.
H3: How Frozen Transfers Compare to Fresh
Frozen embryo transfer rates now match or exceed fresh transfer rates at many clinics. MCRM’s emphasis on PGT and embryo banking means a meaningful share of its cycles are frozen by deliberate choice.
Whether fresh or frozen suits your plan is a question for your care team, shaped by your own protocol.
Pulling Up MCRM’s Own SART Numbers
Head directly to MCRM’s Detailed Clinic Summary Report on sartcorsonline.com. MCRM reports as one combined practice under SART, so this single report covers care delivered at both the St. Louis and Tulsa locations.
The report breaks down into four columns. The first shows the age bracket. The second shows live births per intended retrieval. The third shows the number of cycles behind that figure, and the fourth shows a confidence range, which tells you how much weight that cycle count can support.
Bring the report to your first visit rather than reading it alone. A number on a page can’t account for your history the way a specialist who’s reviewed your chart can, whether you’re seen at MCRM’s St. Louis location or its Tulsa office.
CTA: The Numbers Are a Starting Point, Not an Answer
You now have a framework for reading this data. Understanding these numbers takes real effort, and taking that time says something about how much this path means to you.
You don’t have to make sense of any of it alone. The next move is a conversation with an MCRM specialist who can put these numbers in context for you.
Request an appointment at MCRM and bring your questions with you.