One in every 18 babies in Australia are now born through IVF, with a record high number of births recorded in the latest data.
The annual report from medical researchers at the University of New South Wales found a record 18,594 babies were born in Australia as a result of IVF treatment in 2021, with more than one in three women (37.1%) who completed their first cycle of IVF giving birth.
The report, released Friday, is based on the data which all 95 accredited IVF clinics operating across Australia and New Zealand are required to submit to the Australian and New Zealand Assisted Reproduction Database (Anzard).
The latest report shows treatments undertaken in 2021, and births that occurred both in 2021 and 2022, the lead author of the report and director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit at UNSW, Prof Georgina Chambers, said.
The 102,157 cycles of IVF performed in Australia in 2021 was a 17% increase on 2020, with an average of two cycles for each woman, the report found.
Of those treatments, 11.9% were undertaken by single women and 4.1% by two female parents, according to the report.
Chambers said there could also be a “Covid effect” in the data, with evidence suggesting people prioritised having children over other activities like travel.
One of the main reasons for the “sharp increase” in IVF treatments is the trend of Australians deciding to have children later in life, with age the biggest predictor of needing IVF and of the success of the treatment, Chambers said.
According to the report, the average age of female patients in 2021 was 36, with one in four (25.3%) aged 40 or older, while the average age of male partners was 38.
“One of the other main reasons why we are seeing an increase in infertility treatment is that it is now mainstream medical intervention to treat infertility which is categorised and defined by the WHO and others as a disease of the reproductive system.”
For Sam Walters, a Monash IVF patient, the treatment was the “saving grace” which allowed her to have a family after being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis.
Before her daughter was born through IVF in 2020, Walters said the general reaction from friends and family to her infertility was being told “when you stop trying, it’ll happen and you’ll just fall pregnant”.
Walters said being open about the fact that both her two children have been born through IVF has been a part of breaking the stigma. “It is a medical diagnosis. When we stop trying, it’s not just going to happen.
“We’ve been pretty big on being really honest and even with our three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, she knows she’s an IVF baby.”
The report also found male infertility was reported in approximately one in three cycles, but the principal cause of it was unexplained in the majority (74%) of these cycles.
The Anzard registry is the first registry in the world to collect this detailed information on men, Chambers said, and will allow further research into male infertility, which is “lagging about 20 years behind what we know about female infertility”.
Prof Robert Norman, an expert in reproductive and periconceptual medicine at the University of Adelaide, said the data showed Australia was one of the countries in the world most dependent on assisted reproductive technologies.
“Encouraging fertility in the population involves several measures and adequate support for ART is an important arm of this,” Norman said.
