What Are Your Chances of Success with IVF?
If you can’t get pregnant naturally, in vitro fertilization (IVF) can make it possible for you to start a family. However, your chances of success vary.
Medically Reviewed by Monica Lee, MD, FACOG on November 7, 2025 | Edited by Glow Editors
With in vitro fertilization (IVF), you’ll take medication that stimulates your ovaries to produce and mature multiple eggs. Your doctor will then extract the mature eggs during a small surgical procedure, fertilize them in a lab with sperm from your partner or a donor, and transfer the resulting embryos into your uterus.
While IVF is a highly effective form of assisted reproductive technology (ART), it doesn’t always work on the first try. You might need various cycles of IVF to successfully conceive. Even then, your chances of success depend on various factors.
We’ll break down what affects IVF success rates and give you tips on how to maximize your chances.
What is the average first-cycle success rate with IVF?
On average, women under 35 have about a 44%–50% chance of success with IVF (i.e., having an IVF pregnancy that results in a live birth) after a single egg-retrieval cycle.
Your chances of success decrease with age, and if you’re older, you’re more likely to need multiple IVF cycles to get pregnant.
How age affects your chances of success with IVF
Your age is the most significant factor in how successful IVF will be for you. As you get older, the quality and quantity of your eggs (known as your ovarian reserve) will both decrease.
Check out this table from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which lists the average IVF success rates (for individual cycles, not cumulative attempts) by age: 1
| Age | Using own eggs or embryos | Using donor eggs or embryos |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30 | 43.6% | 41.3% |
| 30 | 43.3% | 45.6% |
| 31 | 43.1% | 40.3% |
| 32 | 43.1% | 42.4% |
| 33 | 42.3% | 45.4% |
| 34 | 41.7% | 44.5% |
| 35 | 40.8% | 41.1% |
| 36 | 39.8% | 41.9% |
| 37 | 38.8% | 39.6% |
| 38 | 36.4% | 43% |
| 39 | 34.2% | 40.7% |
| 40 | 31.6% | 41.4% |
| 41 | 28.3% | 41.2% |
| 42 | 24.6% | 41.7% |
| 43 | 20.2% | 39% |
| 44 | 15.8% | 37.7% |
| 45 | 13.8% | 37.8% |
| Over 45 | 10.4% | 37% |
These figures are just averages. If you’d like to get a better idea of your chances of success, you can check out the CDC’s IVF success estimator.
Note that if you’re willing, using donor eggs or embryos can boost the success rates for women over the age of 35 compared to using their own.
Women over 37 may have a higher success rate with frozen embryo transfers
When you pursue IVF, your doctor will either transfer the embryo into your uterus a few days after the egg retrieval (a “fresh” transfer) or freeze it and transfer it at a later date (a “frozen” transfer). According to one study, women over 37 had a success rate of 14.2%–35.7% with frozen transfers, compared to 2.9%–28.4% with fresh transfers.
Other factors that affect your success with IVF
Along with your age and the kind of eggs or embryos you use (e.g., your own eggs or donor eggs), how successful your IVF cycles are will also depend on:
The cause of your infertility
While IVF is highly effective for many forms of infertility, certain fertility issues can be trickier to deal with. The success rates for IVF vary depending on what’s causing your infertility issues, which you can check out below: 2
| Infertility factor | Success rate (<35) | Success rate (35–37) | Success rate (38–40) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ovulatory dysfunction | 54.7% | 42.8% | 27.7% |
| Male factor infertility | 51.9% | 38.4% | 24% |
| Unexplained | 50.1% | 38.5% | 23.5% |
| Tubal factor (an issue with the fallopian tubes) | 49.7% | 36% | 22.8% |
| Recurrent pregnancy loss | 45.7% | 35.1% | 24.7% |
| Endometriosis | 45.2% | 32.1% | 19.3% |
| Uterine factor | 42.5% | 30.5% | 19.5% |
| Diminished ovarian reserve | 28.3% | 21.9% | 14.7% |
The CDC doesn’t provide data on the average success rates for women over 40 in those circumstances, but they also almost certainly continue to decline with age.
Your embryo’s development
Remember that IVF is a process that involves various steps. Once your doctor retrieves and fertilizes your eggs, they still need to:
- Survive the transfer
- Implant into your uterus
- Survive the duration of your pregnancy
Check out the table below to see the chances of success for each stage of IVF: 3
| Stage of IVF | Average success rates |
|---|---|
| Embryo transfer | 80%–85% |
| Implantation | 40%–50% |
| Labor & delivery | 28%–35% |
As you can see from the table above, each stage of the IVF process carries a lower chance of success (since more has to go right for things to get to that point).
Note that these success rates are accurate for women under 35 years old. If you’re older than 35, you may have a lower chance of success at each stage of IVF.
On the plus side, one study noted that of all the women who successfully got pregnant with IVF, the overall live birth rate was 83.2%. 3
Your fertility clinic
Not all fertility clinics have the same success rates. The skill of the embryology team, the quality of the lab, and the clinic’s procedures can increase or decrease your chances of getting pregnant with IVF.
For the best chances of success, use the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology’s (SART) list of fertility clinics to find one with high success rates. You should make sure that the doctors at your clinic are board-certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI).
Your lifestyle
Your lifestyle is another big factor in your chances of success with IVF. For instance, smoking, excessive alcohol use, or being significantly overweight can make it harder to conceive with IVF. 4
Before you even begin your IVF cycles, you should chat with your doctor about your lifestyle. They’ll be able to advise you on what changes to make so you can improve your chances of conceiving.
How many IVF cycles you go through
While a lot of women successfully get pregnant after their first IVF cycle, you’ll have much better chances of conceiving if you go through multiple cycles.
On average, you’ll need to go through about 3 IVF cycles before you successfully get pregnant. 5
However, that’s a rough estimate, and your chances of success vary significantly and depend on many factors. They decrease with age, regardless of the number of cycles you go through. One study found that 72% of women under 35 successfully conceived and gave birth, compared to 42% of women over 40. 6
How to increase your chances of success with IVF
Although many of the factors that affect your success with IVF are outside of your control, you can take a few simple steps to improve your chances.
Eat a fertility-boosting diet
What you eat directly affects the health of your eggs. Many fertility specialists recommend adopting a Mediterranean-style diet that’s full of:
- Whole foods (e.g., fresh fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens)
- Lean proteins (e.g., fish, poultry, beans, and lentils)
- Healthy fats (e.g., avocado, nuts, seeds, and extra-virgin olive oil)
- Whole grains (e.g., quinoa, farro, and whole-grain bread or pasta)
Do your best to cut back on red meat, sugar, refined grains, and heavily processed foods.
Exercise moderately
One of the best natural ways to boost your fertility is to stay active. You should try to get at least 150 minutes of moderate activity each week, which could include: 7
- Walking or light jogging
- Swimming
- Cycling
- Yoga
However, overly strenuous exercise can actually have a negative effect on your fertility, so try not to overdo it during your IVF cycles.
Get enough sleep
Aim to get at least 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep each night. This helps regulate your hormones, including melatonin, which plays a role in both sleep and your reproductive health.
If you struggle to get enough sleep, try to establish a relaxing bedtime routine, which could include:
- Limiting screen time for at least an hour before bed 8
- Keeping your room dark and at a cool but comfortable temperature
- Not eating for 4 hours before bed
Freeze your eggs
If you’re under 35 but aren’t quite ready to get pregnant yet, you could look into freezing your eggs to use for IVF later on.
Freezing your eggs while you’re young will give you a much better chance of successfully conceiving with IVF. Your eggs can theoretically be stored indefinitely, so many women opt for egg freezing while they’re still very fertile.
However, the costs of freezing your eggs can be quite high, as you’ll have to pay for the egg retrieval process and the subsequent storage fees.
What to do if your first IVF cycle is unsuccessful
Don’t be too dismayed if your first IVF cycle is unsuccessful. It’s very common to need multiple cycles, and it’s usually the result of an issue with the embryo rather than anything you did.
As you know, your chances of success increase with each subsequent cycle, so just because you didn’t get pregnant with your first doesn’t mean you won’t be able to conceive later on.
IVF success stories from Glow’s community
Don’t just take our word for it regarding your chances of IVF success. Check out how many cycles other parents on Glow’s Community Forum went through before successfully getting pregnant:
- “1st cycle: Fresh, ended in miscarriage at 7 weeks. 2nd cycle: didnt take. 3rd cycle: no embryos made it to transfer. 4th: Frozen transfer, I am currently 30w1d. I highly reccomend frozen transfer! good luck!”
- “I got 10 embabies on my first and only cycle but 1st transfer failed, 2nd ended in 10 week miscarriage and 3rd gave me my beautiful baby girl twins!”
- “5 retrieval cycles with fresh transfers and 2 frozen transfers. Ultimately got pregnant with the last FET using an embryo frozen from my first cycle”
- “1st cycle, 3rd transfer. Did frozen transfers because we did PGS testing. 1st transfer was a chemical, 2nd transfer didn’t take, and now 26 weeks after 3rd transfer!”
These quotes were collected from the following posts on Glow’s Community Forum:
Final thoughts
Your chances of success with IVF depend on various factors, including some that you can control and others that you can’t. While you may hope to get pregnant as soon as possible, know that IVF success often comes after multiple cycles.
Despite factors like your age, the cause of your infertility, or how many cycles you go through, there’s still a good chance that IVF can help you build your family.
Article Sources
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "National ART Summary" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "View ART Data for Reporting Year 2022" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- Fertility and Sterility. "Likelihood of success at each stage of IVF treatment by maternal age and oocyte source: analysis of the 2004-13 cycles in the SART CORS" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- American Society for Reproductive Medicine. "Smoking and infertility" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA). "How likely are you to have a baby after one, two or three IVF cycles?" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- The New England Journal of Medicine. "Cumulative Live-Birth Rates after In Vitro Fertilization" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- Tommy’s. "The benefits of exercising/being active when trying to conceive" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- Sleep Foundation. "How Electronics Affect Sleep" Retrieved November 7, 2025.
