Congratulations! After taking on IVF for a chance to conceive, you succeeded and have a little bundle of joy at home. Now you’re wondering what are the chances of conceiving a second child with IVF. 

You’re finding yourself in this awkward phase of your journey where you are both a mom and still infertile. While some may throw insensitive comments your way about how “your body knows what to do now” or “your infertility is probably corrected,” they would be wrong.

Infertility is not cured by a pregnancy and, for that reason, patients commonly return to IVF treatment after the birth of their first IVF-conceived child.

What are the real chances of success for women returning to fertility treatment in the hopes of having a second child with IVF? 

One of the few studies addressing this followed 35,290 women who started fertility treatment using their own eggs between January 2009 and December 2013 and successfully delivered their first baby from treatment performed during this period. These women were then followed up for a further 2 years of treatment to December 2015, providing a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 7 years of treatment follow-up.

The results showed the cumulative live birth rate (LBR) for women returning to fertility treatment was between 50% and 88% after six cycles depending on whether women had a frozen embryo transfer or a new ovarian stimulation cycle. 

The results were higher for the women who had a frozen embryo transfer, likely due to the age of the egg at the time the embryo was created and frozen.

What does this mean if you have yet to conceive your first child via IVF?

Embryo banking, which may require multiple rounds of stimulation and egg retrievals. should be discussed with your clinic prior to embryo transfer.

Hopefully these age-specific success rates will facilitate individualised counselling and clinical decision-making for the large number of patients hoping to achieve a second ART-conceived child.