It is now for quite some years that CHR has been serving the by far oldest patient population of any IVF center in the U.S. that is reporting annual outcomes to either the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and/or the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) (CHR reports to both). Over the last 10 years, CHR’s average patient age has been slowly but progressively increasing. The increase observed between 2016 and 2017 was, however, unexpected because within that one year the median age of CHR’s patients increased by one full year from age 42 to age 43 (see figure below).
This is an unprecedented increase, and fully reflected in the fact that only a few years ago, women entering IVF cycles above age 45 even at CHR were a rarity; by now, they represent an almost daily event. Indeed, though CHR (and likely the world’s) so-far oldest patients achieving pregnancies with use of their own eggs were at time of embryo transfer just weeks short of age 48, and we, therefore, still are striving to cross age 48, we are now quite routinely treating even older women. Our so-far oldest patient who produced with use of her own eggs embryos that were worthwhile transferring, was almost 52 years old.
We in these pages have many times expressed our pride in how successful we are in treating older women. Who either had failed IVF cycles elsewhere before coming to CHR or were refused treatment with use of their own eggs because of their advanced age. At the same time, we, however, always wonder how much more we could do for our patients if they only presented to CHR earlier.
The same, of course, also applies to our younger patients. Not all CHR patients are in their 40s, but even our younger patients usually present to CHR only after they had multiple failed cycles elsewhere and/or were refused further treatment with use of their own eggs because of high FSH and low AMH levels. We wish those patients came to CHR earlier as well because in younger women the difference would be even more pronounced.
Because we are still collecting cycle outcome data for 2017, we, likely in the April VOICE, will present CHR’s age-specific IVF outcomes for 2017.
This is a part of the February 2018 CHR VOICE.
Norbert Gleicher, MD, leads CHR’s clinical and research efforts as Medical Director and Chief Scientist. A world-renowned specialist in reproductive endocrinology, Dr. Gleicher has published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and lectured globally while keeping an active clinical career focused on ovarian aging, immunological issues and other difficult cases of infertility.
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