Assisted Fertility Treatments

Data description

Data descriptions are drawn up for statistics that are not based on personal data files. They include the same information as the file descriptions, where appropriate.

Producer

National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Information Services

Description

The statistics on assisted fertility treatments contain data on assisted fertility treatments and on resulting pregnancies and births. The statistics are collected annually from all clinics providing assisted fertility treatments in Finland.

Data content

The statistics contains data on the number in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments, intracytoplasmic sperm injections (ICSI), and frozen embryo transfers (FET) using non-donor gametes, as well as on treatment outcomes. The statistics also include data on the number of IVF treatments (including ICSI and FET) using donor gametes as well as on the number of resulting pregnancies and births. Also data on IUI treatments both with donor and non-donor gametes are included in the statistics.

For all types of treatments, the statistics contain data on

• started treatment cycles
• clinical pregnancies
• pregnancies that resulted in at least one live birth
• number of newborns
• multiple pregnancies
• age of women treated

For IVF treatments (including ICSI and FET) using non-donor gametes, the statistics also contain data on

• reason for infertility
• method of ovulation induction used
• number of embryos transferred
• outcomes of clinical pregnancies
• elective transfers of one embryo (IVF and ICSI)
• length of gestation (prematurity)
• child’s birth weight (low birth weight)

Classifications

Service provider (public/private), treatment type, cell type, region (whole country/catchment area for highly specialised medical care), number of foetuses

Data collection methods and data sources

Data is collected from the clinics that provide treatment by using a Finnish version of an international data collection form.

Updating frequency

Once a year.

Time of completion and release

April. Preliminary data on treatments in the previous year and data on treatment outcomes in the year preceding that are available then.

Time series

Data has been collected since 1992. In 1992 and 1993 data were collected by the IVF clinic at Helsinki University Hospital. Data on treatments performed using donor sperm and embryos have been collected since 2001. Data on insemination treatments have been collected since 2006.

Since 2006 the data collection has been based on the Act on Assisted Fertility Treatments (1237/2006) and it is compulsory for clinics to submit the data to THL.

Keywords

Statistics, assisted fertility treatments, in vitro fertilisation, childlessness, artificial insemination, embryo transfer