How to Improve the Success Rates of IVF

Improve your chances of IVF success by living a healthy lifestyle.

In virto fertilization offers women the opportunity to conceive and deliver a baby who have been unable to do so otherwise. An expensive, but increasingly common procedure, in 2006 IVF procedures resulted in 43,412 live births in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control's Assisted Reproductive Technology Center. During the IVF procedure, a doctor removes fertile eggs from a woman's uterus, fertilizes them with her husband's sperm, or that of another male donor, and reinserts the fertilized egg back into her uterus in hopes of growing the embryo to term. Success rates depend on a number of controllable and uncontrollable factors such as age, genetics and lifestyle.

Instructions

1. Maintain a healthy weight. Like many physiological processes, pregnancy is more difficult when you're overweight. Women between the ages of 35 and 39 were more than 13 percent more likely to have successful IVF pregnancies if their body mass index was between 17 and 29, reports the Advanced Institute of Fertility of Chicago. For women between the ages of 30 and 35, the success rate increased to nearly 20 percent for those with a healthy BMI.

2. Drink less alcohol. A study conducted at the University of California-San Diego and published in the Fertility and Sterility in 2003 found that increasing your alcohol consumption by even one glass of wine per day reduces IVF success rates by 13 percent. Alcohol consumption by the male sperm donor also reduced the success rate. For best results, both partners should abstain from alcohol at least one month before the IVF cycle, recommends the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine.

3. Stop smoking. The negative health affects of smoking while pregnant are well stipulated, but even smoking before pregnancy can decrease your chances of IVF success. A 2008 study in Nantes France revealed that the live birth rate for mothers who smoked and had IVF was 10 percent compared to 30 percent for non-smokers

Tips & Warnings

• Be honest with your fertility counselor when discussing potentially detrimental aspects of your lifestyle such as smoking or drinking. If your current lifestyle is less than ideal, ask your counselor or doctor for recommended strategies on how to decrease these negative behaviors.

References

• American Pregnancy Association: In Vitro Fertilization
• Reproductive Biomedicine: Active smoking compromises IVF outcome and affects ovarian reserve. 2008
• Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago: Weight BMI and IVF and its affect on IVF succes rates
• Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine: Alcohol Consumption and IVF
• Effects of maternal and paternal alcohol consumption on the success rates of in vitro fertilization and gamete intrafallopian transfer. 2003