Questions to ask a fertility clinic before you start IVF
A consultation checklist covering outcomes, embryo transfer policy, the lab, costs and what happens if a cycle is cancelled.
A first consultation at a fertility clinic moves quickly. You meet a reproductive endocrinologist, review test results and leave with a treatment plan and a price sheet. It is easier to compare clinics if you arrive with the same questions for each. This checklist is built around what CDC's public data can and can't tell you.
About the clinic's results
- “What were your results for patients my age, and how do they compare with the national figures?” Bring the numbers from the clinic's page here. A good clinic will discuss them openly rather than pointing to a single headline rate.
- “Do you have more recent results than CDC's 2022 data?” Members of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) submit data that SART publishes more quickly at sartcorsonline.com.
- “How does your patient mix compare with a typical clinic?” Ask what share of patients are over 40, have diminished ovarian reserve, or come after unsuccessful IVF elsewhere. This is the context CDC says is missing from raw comparisons.
- “Do you ever advise patients not to proceed, or cancel cycles?” Clinics that screen out poor-prognosis patients can show higher per-transfer rates.
- “Based on my tests, what is my realistic chance per retrieval, and how many retrievals might I need?” Your personal estimate matters more than the clinic average.
About embryo transfer
- “How many embryos do you usually transfer for someone like me?” Transferring more than one embryo increases the chance of twins or triplets, which carry higher risks for mother and babies. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine publishes guidance on limiting the number of embryos transferred, and many clinics now routinely transfer one.
- “Do you usually transfer fresh or freeze all embryos?” Freeze-all approaches are common; ask why the clinic recommends one or the other for you.
- “Do you recommend genetic testing of embryos (PGT-A), and why?” Ask what the test costs, what it can and can't tell you, and how it changes your plan.
About the laboratory
Much of IVF happens in the embryology lab, which patients never see.
- “Is your embryology lab accredited, and by whom?” CDC's clinic data record whether a clinic's lab accreditation was verified; accreditation comes from the College of American Pathologists or The Joint Commission. Our clinic pages show it when CDC's file records it.
- “Who are your embryologists and how experienced are they?”
- “How are eggs and embryos stored, monitored and tracked?” Ask about alarms on storage tanks, backup procedures and how specimens are labelled and witnessed.
- “What are storage fees after the first year?”
About cost
IVF is expensive, and quotes are not always comparable. Ask for a written estimate that separates:
- the base cycle fee (monitoring, retrieval, lab, transfer);
- medications, which are often billed separately by a specialty pharmacy;
- ICSI (injecting sperm into each egg), embryo testing, assisted hatching and other add-ons;
- anaesthesia, embryo freezing and annual storage;
- frozen embryo transfer cycles;
- what you pay if a cycle is cancelled before retrieval or before transfer.
Ask whether the clinic offers multi-cycle packages or refund programmes, what exactly they cover, and who qualifies. Ask what your insurance covers: some states require insurers to cover infertility treatment or IVF, and the rules vary by state and by type of plan. RESOLVE maintains a state-by-state summary, and your plan documents are the final word.
About care and communication
- “Who will I see day to day?” Monitoring visits may be with nurses or other physicians, especially at large practices or networks.
- “Will the same doctor perform my retrieval and transfer?”
- “How do I reach someone after hours?” Complications such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome can arise quickly.
- “What support do you offer?” Many clinics work with counsellors who specialise in fertility; for donor or gestational-carrier cycles, counselling is usually part of the process.
About the clinic's current status
CDC's data are a snapshot of 2022. Fertility clinics change hands often, and many have joined larger networks. Ask whether the clinic has changed name, ownership, location or medical director since then. Our pages show the medical director reported to CDC and flag clinics that CDC lists as reorganized.
After the consultation
Compare clinics on the same few points: results for your age group with the national figure beside them, how many embryos they would transfer, the full written cost, and how well they answered. A clinic that is candid about its numbers and your chances is giving you useful information about how it will treat you.