IVF Rates Nearly Doubled in Past 10 Years, Study

The number of infertile patients undergoing successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the aid of donor eggs has nearly doubled to 25 percent in the past decade, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

A successfully IVF occurred in about 1 out of 4 donor egg pregnancies in 2010, up from 19 percent a decade earlier, the study found. The researchers said in 2000, 10,801 women conceived a child with fresh or frozen donated eggs and that number climbed to 18,306 in 2010.

"The chance of delivering an infant at term weighing more than 5.5 pounds is becoming more and more common with donor eggs," said study author Dr. Jennifer Kawwass, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility fellow at Emory University School of Medicine and guest researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the report, women who use in vitro fertilization and their own eggs, the live-birth rate varies by age and is highest - about 40 percent - among women younger than 35.

Meanwhile, the average age of women using donor eggs was 41 in 2010 and donors were aged 28 on average; those didn't change over 10 years.

Kawwass  noted that egg donors could be anonymous or they could be family or friends. If the donors are compensated, the average fee is about $6,000, she noted. Donors must first pass psychological and medical testing. Then, over about two to four weeks, donors receive IVF ovarian stimulation to produce eggs, and then undergo egg retrieval.