Choosing a clinic

For cancer surgery, or any kind of surgery, it's best to choose a surgeon who does the procedure all the time. The same is true of infertility clinics; doctors recommend picking a place with a lot of experience in whatever procedures you might have. This doesn't mean you have to pick the clinic that does the most IVF cycles per year, but a clinic that only does 10 a year probably doesn't have enough experience.

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Ask the clinic about its success rates, and find out if it publishes that information anywhere. In your initial visits to the clinic, ask as many questions as you can; you want to be sure that the clinic is able to do what you expect, and also to be sure that the clinic staff is comfortable answering questions and listening to your concerns.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collects data on assisted reproductive technology (including IVF) from several hundred clinics across the country. The report can be viewed on the CDC website. Direct comparisons of pregnancy rates aren't necessarily the best way to choose a clinic; clinics have different populations of patients, so a clinic that takes only the easiest patients might have an artificially high pregnancy rate. But at the minimum, a clinic that is willing to report its data might be a better choice.