Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago Blog

Octomom and IVF – before June of 2008

• In June of 2008, Nadya Suleman was a single, unemployed mother of 6 children
• According to reports, she was receiving some “public assistance”
• All six of her children were reportedly conceived through in vitro fertilization
• All 6 kids were under 7 years old, including 2 year old twins

Then, she does IVF again

• In June of 2008, her IVF doctor transferred 6 frozen-thawed embryos to her uterus.
• Apparently, all six embryos survived – and 2 split into identical twins – so she ended up with eight fetuses growing in her uterus.
• Nadya declined having a fetal reduction procedure. Reduction can be done to selectively reduce the number of fetuses.
• The vast majority octuplet pregnancies would be expected to result in death of all fetuses after a severely premature birth.
• In her case the pregnancy progressed to viability. All 8 babies were born (prematurely) in January of 2009.
• This is apparently only the second living set of octuplets ever born in the United States.

Public debate rages

• Is she a fit mother?
• Should the fertility specialist have been willing to treat her at all?
• How many embryos should the doctor have transferred to her uterus?
• Should a physician that transfers that many embryos to a 33-year-old be sanctioned – or even lose his medical license?
• Why doesn’t the government pass laws to control fertility doctors?

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Learn about blastocyst transfer

Couples with infertility often need IVF to get pregnant.

What should they know about IVF clinic success rates?

• An interesting and unusual aspect of IVF is that there is a definitive outcome for each procedure.
• When an IVF cycle is done there is a baby born from it – or there is not. Therefore, keeping track of (and comparing) IVF live birth success rates is very straightforward.
• Medical treatments in general rarely have such “black and white” outcomes.
• Another unique aspect of IVF is that (in the US) all IVF clinics are required by federal law to report their in vitro fertilization success rates annually to the government. The CDC, a US government agency produces a report called the “Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Report” detailing IVF success rates for all individual clinics.
• This report is commonly called the CDC IVF success rate report. It is released to the public on the web every year (usually in December or January).
• Another useful report, the SART report (Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology), is very similar to the CDC report – and it is released about a year earlier. However, clinics are not required by law to report to SART – so some clinics are not listed there.
• These 2 annual reports allow consumers to view and compare IVF success rates for reputable fertility clinics.

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