More Australian births with assisted conception
31 May 2001
An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report has revealed that the number of babies born in Australia with the help of assisted conception is rising.
The continuing rise is occurring with the increasingly successful use of a technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), along with the more 'traditional' in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) techniques.
The report, Assisted Conception Australia and New Zealand 1998 and 1999, compiled by the AIHW’s National Perinatal Statistics Unit at the University of New South Wales, shows 3873 babies were born after assisted conception in Australia in 1998. This is a 10.2 per cent rise from the previous year.
National Perinatal Statistics Unit Director Dr Paul Lancaster said that the number of treatment cycles for all types of assisted conception has also increased significantly since the early 1990s, rising by more than 60 per cent.
‘Probably of the greatest interest to couples considering assisted conception is that when all techniques of assisted conception are put together, births occurred in 15.9 per cent of treatment cycles,’ Dr Lancaster explained.
The report also revealed that a higher number of Australians over-40 are becoming parents with the aid of assisted conception compared with natural conception.
‘Another finding was that about 8 per cent of assisted conception mothers were aged 40 years or more—compared with just over 2 per cent of all mothers giving birth,’ said Dr Lancaster.
‘Similarly, about 25 per cent of assisted conception fathers were 40 or over compared with 10 per cent of all Australian fathers.’
The rate of multiple pregnancies (twins, triplets and so on) is also higher with assisted conception, occurring in about 20 per cent of all IVF and GIFT pregnancies, compared with 1.5 per cent of all pregnancies in Australia.
Last Reviewed: 04 June 2001
