Fewer twins after artificial insemination
Keystone-SDA
Multiple births following artificial insemination in Switzerland have fallen sharply over the last 20 years, shrinking from 17.4% in 2002 to 2.8% in 2023.
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This decline can largely be explained by a revision of the Reproductive Medicine Act in 2017. It allows a higher number of embryos (maximum 12) to be stored, said Tonia Rihs from the Reproduction Statistics Section of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
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In this way, medical practice can better determine which embryos can be used for artificial fertilisation (in vitro fertilisation, or IVF for short). Transfers of a single embryo had also increased significantly.
In 2017, two embryos were used in 4,085 transfers. Only one embryo was transferred in 3,789 cases. In 2023, the majority of transfers involved only one embryo (7,341). Two embryos were transferred only 811 times.
More live births after IVF
In 2023, 6,513 couples underwent treatment with the IVF method. The number fell by 1.5% compared to the previous year. As a result, 2,511 children were born. However, this corresponds to an increase of 5.9% compared to 2022. These 2,511 children account for 3% of all births in Switzerland. Some 67 of these children were born after a sperm donation.
Nevertheless, only around 30% of all embryo transfers resulted in a birth. But that is also an increase. In 2017, this figure was 23%, in 2022 it was 27.6%.
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Translated from German with DeepL/mga
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