Prague, Jan 3 (CTK) – The average age of Czech women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and frozen embryo transfer (FET) increased by 1.9 and 3.4 years from 2008 to 2015, respectively, according to the latest data released by the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS).
In 2015, the average age of Czech women who start undergoing IVF cycles was over 35 and in case of FET cycles it was over 37. The number of all cycles introduced in the national register was over 38,000 that year.
The FET cycle is applied after the IVF cycle. If the woman does not get pregnant, it follows after several months. If the woman delivers a baby, after several years.
Czech women aged under 39 can have three to four IVF cycles covered from their compulsory health insurance. A woman pays 17,500 crowns for additional treatment and medicines per cycle covered from her insurance on average. The success rate of this method is approximately 20 percent, but it falls with higher age.
In 2015, about 10,000 Czech women, 2,500 women from other EU countries and 600 women from outside the European Union underwent IVF cycles in the country. About 6,500 Czech women, 4,200 women from other EU countries and 500 women outside the EU underwent FET cycles.
In 2015, 2,353 babies were born to Czech women thanks to IVF and FET cycles, which is about 2 percent of all babies born in the country that year. Only 84 of the babies were born to mothers aged over 40, although these mothers represented 15 percent of the women undergoing the cycles.
Some 40 fertility clinics, mostly private facilities, operate in the Czech Republic. Women aged from 18 to 49 may undergo the treatment.
Critics of the system claim that fertility clinics turned into a lucrative business in the Czech Republic. Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who was a rich businessman, was active in the business, too. The Hartenberg fund, which administers Babis’s property, controls about 40 percent of the Czech market of fertility clinics.
Average age of Czech women at start of cycle:
Cycle 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
IVF 33.4 34.0 33.5 33.9 34.0 34.4 34.8 35.1 35.3
FET 33.8 34.4 35.2 35.3 35.9 36.4 36.7 36.9 37.2
Initiated cycles according to age of Czech women in 2015:
Women’s age IVF FET
over 40 2,073 3,633
35 to 39 5,192 3,354
under 34 5,940 4,253
Number of initiated cycles, pregnancies and child deliveries according to age groups in 2015:
under 34 35 to 39 over 40
number of initiated IVF cycles 6,526 5,820 2,322
number of pregnancies 1,962 1,212 183
number of child deliveries 1,445 824 84
Source: Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS)
