The HFEA's newsletter on fertility treatment data |
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Welcome to the third ‘Data research update’ newsletter from the HFEA! |
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Upcoming HFEA webinar - Accessing the UK national fertility register for research, 5 February 2025 |
On 5 February 2025, the HFEA will host our first webinar for researchers interested in accessing data from the UK national fertility register.
The HFEA has collected data on all IVF and donor insemination treatments performed in the UK since 1991. Our upcoming webinar will provide the following information: |
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An overview of the UK fertility sector and national register
- Structure and data fields included on the register
- Strengths and challenges of register data
- Examples of research using register data
- Requirements for accessing the UK national register
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This session is designed for all researchers who are interested in UK fertility data, including clinical, public health and social scientists.
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New HFEA report – Family formations in fertility treatment 2022 |
New data from our Family formations in fertility treatment report found that from 2012 to 2022, the proportion of IVF treatments doubled among female same-sex couples (2% to 4%) and tripled for single patients (2% to 6%).
Our report also highlights key differences in egg freeze/thaw cycles. From 2018-2022, egg freezing was most common among single patients (89%), while more opposite-sex couples (85%) thawed eggs for treatment, followed by single patients (13%) and female same-sex couples (2%). For the first time our report also includes surrogacy data on intended parents, with opposite-sex couples accounting for at least 39% of surrogacy cycles in 2022. Further information on the age at first IVF treatment, birth rate, and funding by family type can be found in the report and underlying dataset.
The next planned HFEA publication will be the second ‘National Patient Survey' report in Spring 2025, following the previous report in 2022. |
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Updates to the HFEA dashboard |
The award-winning HFEA dashboard has been updated to include additional categories, providing further information by family type.
A new feature has been added allowing the birth rate following IVF or donor insemination to be filtered by ‘family type’. To report reciprocal IVF separately from IVF treatments using eggs from the same patient, ‘partner’ is now included as an option to select under ‘Egg source’. |
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I’m Dr Claire Carson and I’m a statistical epidemiologist based at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. My research mainly uses routinely collected data to study health and health care utilisation across preconception, pregnancy and the perinatal period. |
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As part of my work, I run the ‘Prolonged Effects of Assisted reproductive technologies: a Record Linkage study’ (PEARL), which links HFEA treatment cycle data to primary care and hospital records for mothers and babies from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). This has allowed our team to create a de-identified dataset to study the health outcomes for children born after fertility treatment. We have since published in Human Reproduction showing the costs associated with health care use in children up to the age of 10 years, and reported a small, but significant, increase in costs for children born after treatment compared to those who were not.
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Recent HFEA presentation on national fertility register data |
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Our latest family formations report estimated that in 2022 reciprocal IVF accounted for 1 in 6 IVF cycles among female same-sex couples.
Reciprocal IVF, otherwise known as ‘shared motherhood’, is where eggs are collected from one partner in a female same-sex or other LGBTQIA+ couple and fertilised with donor sperm. The resulting embryo is then transferred into the other partner’s womb. To find out more, visit our reciprocal IVF webpage. |
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Research publications using HFEA register data |
A list of publications since 2024 can be found below, with earlier papers found on our website. We rely on researchers to let us know when they have published research using HFEA data. If you have a publication to contribute to the bibliography, please contact us at register.research@hfea.gov.uk.
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Williams, C.L., Bunch, K.J., Stiller, C., Murphy, M.F.G., Botting, B.J., Davies, M.C., Luke, B., Lupo, P.J., & Sutcliffe, A.G. (2024) Langerhans cell histiocytosis in children born after assisted reproductive technology. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 49(6).
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Datta, A.K., Campbell, S., Diaz-Fernandez, R., & Nargund, G. (2024) Livebirth rates are influenced by an interaction between male and female partners’ age: analysis of 59 951 fresh IVF/ICSI cycles with and without male infertility. Human Reproduction, 39(11).
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Paffoni, A., Vitagliano, A., Corti, L., Somigliana, E., & Viganò, P. (2024) Intracytoplasmic sperm injection versus conventional in vitro insemination in couples with non-male infertility factor in the ‘real-world’ setting: analysis of the HFEA registry. Journal of Translational Medicine, 22(687).
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Editorial statement
Data research update is an official electronic newsletter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, is produced by the HFEA and provides a roundup of news and information on the Register data and Register Research Panel activity. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission. You can view our privacy policy on our website.
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