Something Weird

Because I like numbers and statistics and large sample sizes to compare, I often spend time that I shouldn't looking at the objective, government statistics on IVF and DE success rates.  The reason I think it's important is that as my colleague said this week, you want to go to the medical clinic that has the best batting average.

Here is the weird part.  I would assume that if a clinic has a really good DE success rate, they should also have a really good IVF success rate or vice versa.  However, the clinic I'm in love with in San Diego, while it has an over 80% success rate in DE (waaay higher than my local clinic).  However, it has a slightly lower success rate with regular IVF than the local clinic.  

Hmmmm.  In the process of writing that paragraph, I just answered my own question.  I know for a fact that the San Diego clinic doesn't turn down anyone whereas the local clinic has a reputation for not offering IVF to people whom they don't think it will work.  

That could explain the differences in regular IVF rates.  I still think the differences in DE rates have to do with lab skill and donor pool.

Well, dang.  I thought I'd found a real conundrum to blog about and really, I'm just wasting time.