REGISTERS OF IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION AND ASSISTED CONCEPTION

Many countries now have registers of assisted conception that were ini tially set up to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment, to monitor p regnancy outcomes and the health of treated women, and to assess any i mmediate risks for the women and their children, World reports, based on information from national registers, have enabled international com parisons of the extent to which the various techniques of assisted con ception are used to treat infertile couples, as well as comparisons of pregnancy outcome, The reports also provide comparative data on pregn ancy rates in populations rather than in single in-vitro fertilization (IVF) centres, To determine whether newly introduced techniques such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection are associated with any increased risks of birth defects or other adverse outcomes, information notified to registers will often need to be supplemented by clinical reports o r by linkage of data in IVF registers and other health data systems, F urther efforts to improve the quality of information on assisted conce ption within each country and internationally need to be well supporte d so that the effectiveness of treatment and the outcomes of treated c ouples and their children can be evaluated properly.