Tuesday, June 21, 2011

IVF Use in America: State IVF Rates and Rankings (Map), by Abbie Waters

Here is an interesting article by Abbie Waters of Fertility Nation in IVF
 -----------------------
Americans love in vitro fertilization.

Despite the fact that IVF is expensive and most insurance plans don’t cover it, more than 50,000 American children a year are born using the procedure. That works out to more than 1 percent of US births annually!

The people of Washington D.C. use IVF more than any other state and almost twice as much as the second-ranked state (Massachusetts), while those in Maine, Montana, and Wyoming don’t use IVF treatments at all — at least in their home states.

Scroll down for the complete rankings.


Via: Fertility Nation

The United States of IVF: State IVF Rates and Rankings

Rank State Per Capita IVF Rate
For Every 100,000 People
1 Washington D.C. 227.1
2 Massachusetts 127.9
3 Maryland 98.3
4 New York 92.6
5 New Jersey 90.9
6 Connecticut 90.1
7 Illinois 67.4
8 Rhode Island 62.9
9 Delaware 58.1
10 Hawaii 55.4
11 California 44.1
12 Nevada 42.3
13 Colorado 40.5
14 Minnesota 37.0
15 Virginia 33.9
16 Washington 33.3
17 Florida 31.6
18 Kansas 31.4
19 Ohio 31.1
19 Utah 31.1
21 Texas 30.9
22 Pennsylvania 30.5
23 Michigan 29.5
24 Oregon 29.2
25 North Carolina 27.6
26 Nebraska 27.2
27 Arizona 27.1
28 Iowa 26.6
29 Missouri 26.1
30 Georgia 25.7
31 North Dakota 24.0
32 Indiana 22.9
33 South Dakota 22.1
34 Idaho 20.5
35 South Carolina 20.1
36 Louisiana 19.2
36 Vermont 19.2
38 Alabama 19.0
39 Wisconsin 18.1
40 Oklahoma 17.3
41 Alaska 16.0
42 Tennessee 15.7
43 New Hampshire 13.1
44 Arkansas 11.3
45 New Mexico 11.0
46 Mississippi 8.6
47 Kentucky 8.3
48 West Virginia 5.3
49 Maine* 0
49 Montana** 0
49 Wyoming** 0

* Maine had one fertility clinic fail to report its success rates.
** Montana and Wyoming have no fertility clinics.
States That Use IVF the Most
All of the top five and eight of the top ten states for IVF are located on the east coast (Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware).

It’s also interesting that all of the top ten states have lower-than-average percentages of people without health insurance coverage (the national average was 15.8).


States That Use IVF the Least
The ten lowest-ranked states are spread over more regions, tend to be located in low-density states with low populations and low average household incomes.

This helps explain why so few IVF procedures are performed in these places. Because IVF treatments cost a lot of money out-of-pocket, people in these states can’t afford as many procedures as their top-ranked counterparts.

How I Created State IVF Rates and Rankings
Using 2008 data on fertility clinic success rates from the CDC and 2008 state populations from the US Census Bureau, I created per capita IVF rates for each state. Per capita IVF rates tell us how many IVF cycles were started in each state for every 100,000 people living there.

These statistics count the total number of IVF cycles started using a woman’s own fresh and frozen eggs. Some IVF cycles may include additional fertility treatments such as GIFT, ZIFT, ICSI, and blastocyst transfers.

These statistics don’t count IVF treatments that used donor eggs, nor do they indicate states’ IVF success rates (live birth rates).


Friday, June 10, 2011

The Miracle of Nature - Eggs

Eggs, precious no matter who they come from. Found these in my rose bush, the mama sat on them and hatched 2 of the 4. Sadly, they didn't make it. She'll try again no doubt, and I look forward witnessing the miracle of nature.


Thursday, June 9, 2011

Birth Announcement - Welcome baby girls!















It is with great joy that I announce the birth of Sophia and Abigail. Aren't they absolutely gorgeous?! When I received the announcement, my eyes welled up with tears and I felt tremendous happiness for proud parents, Cindy and Mike.

Cindy, wrote a post on Heartfelt Egg Donation's blog back in September describing their journey to parenthood. I would encourage anyone who is feeling discouraged about getting pregnant or building their family to read Cindy's blog post by clicking here.

Congratulations to the happy family and may sleep come your way sooner rather than later!