Assisted Fertility Treatments

Data content

The Assisted Fertility Treatments statistics compiled by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) contain information on IVF treatments, ICSI cycles, frozen embryo transfers (FETs) and intrauterine insemination (IUI).

The fertility treatments statistics were collected by THL's Information Department between January and April 2009. The Act on Infertility Treatments, effective on 1 September 2007, and the subsequent Decree prescribe that the providers of infertility treatment services must provide THL with information about their infertility treatment activities for the purposes of supervision, monitoring and statistics (Act on Infertility Treatments 1237/2006 and Ministry of Social Affairs and Health's Decree on Infertility Treatments 825/2007).

A total of 26 clinics giving infertility treatments responded to the inquiry (12 in the public sector and 14 in the private sector). All 26 clinics provide IUI treatments and 19 provide IVF, ICSI and FET treatments.

The statistics concern treatments performed in 2007 and the preliminary numbers of treatments in 2008. The lag in the data collection is due to the fact that complete information cannot be collected until the results of all treatments are known: the last infants are born as late as the autumn of the following year. The years given in the tables on newborns refer to the year of fertilisation, not to the year of birth.

Data on one clinic is missing in the statistics for 2001-2002.

Abbreviations and definitions

IVF = in vitro fertilisation. A process where mature oocytes (egg cells) are retrieved from the ovaries and fertilised outside the womb. The fertilised oocytes are allowed to grow into embryos, after which usually one or two of the resulting embryos are transferred to the recipient's uterus.

ICSI = intracytoplasmic sperm injection. A procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an oocyte. The process then follows in the same way as IVF treatments.

IUI = intrauterine insemination. A process where sperms are injected into the uterine cavity.

FET = frozen embryo transfer. A process where, after IVF procedures, embryos of good enough quality can be frozen and later transferred to the uterus.

OD = oocyte donation