City Fertility Centre, the largest privately owned fertility service provider in Australia, has welcomed a report that found Australia and New Zealand are world leaders in safe IVF treatment.
Released on November 6, 2014, the latest Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) in Australia and New Zealand report by the National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit at the University of New South Wales found the two countries’ rates of multiple births involving IVF are the lowest in the world.
Multiple births are considered a significant health risk to mothers and babies born through IVF, and a multiple-embryo transfer increases this threat. Australia has a multiple-birth rate for IVF of 6.6 per cent, while New Zealand recorded 5.2 per cent.
This compares with multiple births occurring in about 30 per cent of IVF treatments performed in the US, while the rate is about 18 per cent in the United Kingdom.
A continuing positive trend in IVF treatment in Australia and New Zealand is higher rates of single-embryo transfer – the latest data, for 2012, found 76.3 per cent of cases involved single-embryo transfer compared with 67.8 per cent in 2008.
Adnan Catakovic, City Fertility Centre CEO and scientific director, said the findings reflected the high quality of IVF treatment available in Australia.
“City Fertility Centre is dedicated to the highest standard of patient care and we are proud to be part of best practice in Australia in assisted reproductive technology,” Mr Catakovic said.
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