Inhalt

In-vitro fertilisation

The Austria fund for financing in-vitro fertilisation (IVF Fund) was established in 2000 (IVF Fund Act, Fed. Gaz. I No. 180/1999 – amendment 2015). Since introduction of this law and in cases where treatment with specific methods is necessary for aspiring parents to fulfil their wish for a child they have, under certain conditions, been able to apply to the IVF Fund for help with the costs of such medical procedures.

Development

Between 2001 and 2014 Austria saw a surge in the number of attempts documented in the IVF register, rising from some 4,700 to over 7,600, i.e. an increase of around 62%. This was followed in 2015 and 2016 by a further rise to approx. 9,100 attempts at IVF (+19%) and then to 10,100.

In 2016 a total of 2,092 pregnancies were registered in the framework of the IVF Fund (not including attempts made with cryopreserved embryos). Between 2001 and 2010 there was a dramatic increase in this figure, which rose from 986 to 1,993 pregnancies, but by 2014 this had dropped to 1797. Between 2001-2010 Austria witnessed a rise in the pregnancy rate (number of pregnancies per follicular puncture), which increased in this period from 22.8% to 33.9%. The high pregnancy rate of 2010 has not been attained again. In 2015 it reached 30.9% and in 2016, 28.9%.

If attempts involving cryopreserved embryos are also taken into consideration, a total of 3,006 pregnancies resulting from IVF were registered in 2016. The figure for 2015 was 2,814 pregnancies, followed by 2,410 births, accounting for 2.9% of all babies born in Austria. As for IVF attempts, there was a significant increase from 2014 to 2015, up some 19% in the case of pregnancies and approx. 18% for births.

Numbering 2,047 births, IVF accounted for 2.5% of all births in 2014. (No figures for births resulting from IVF are available for 2016.) The fall in the pregnancy rate seen from 2010 can be attributed to the current tendency of transferring fewer embryos to minimise the probability of multiple births and the greater risk associated with such pregnancies. And indeed, while in 2009 almost 24% of births from IVF were multiple births (298 births), this figure plummeted in 2015 to around 10% (253 births). Almost a fifth of all multiple births documented in 2015 (19.2%) were the result of IVF.

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