Would you change your decision to go forward with an IVF procedure or another infertility treatment if a computer program were to tell you that statistically the odds are against you? I thought this kind of question presented a good topic of discussion for this infertility blog and it’s not something I just randomly thought of either as there was recently an article online at the Bloomberg website that presents this very scenario as a possibility in the very near future.

As it turns out there is a few scientists over at Stanford U that are working out an analytical program that will be able to give you a better prediction of what your chances of successfully conceiving a baby are. As of right now everyone get their chances of predictions from their doctors and those are based on general guidelines like your age.

The computer program how ever takes into account your physical statistics from head to toe as well as all your blood and urine results and perhaps most importantly the results from your first IVF attempt.

I think it’s and interesting concept that has some very good intentions like giving the patient a clearer picture of what they are up against in terms of having a successful IVF treatment. Being able to make a decision based on statistical data as opposed to what your emotional gut check tells you to do based on what your fertility doc tells you are ‘your chances’. Which we all know is just a bunch of guess work anyway.

The intent of such a program is to hopefully reduce the amount of patients making unnecessary choices to go forward with expensive infertility treatments. Knowing that the average cost of IVF procedures in the US run between $10k and $20k it might actually help to reduce the cost in the long run if less people were to decide not to go through with it because they had a more complete statistical picture of what the odds of success were.

However I think there is one chink in the armor or bump in the road so to speak of this computer program having the desired effect. Fighting infertility is an emotional battle that runs deep in the people that have to deal with this terrible disease. I would be willing to bet that even if you told an infertile couple, woman or man that their odds are just 5% for success for example that the majority of them would be willing to still go forward with their infertility treatments because for most of us that deal with infertility,  having any chance makes it worth the effort in our hearts and minds.

If you want to read more about this odds of success for your infertility treatment computer program than here is the link to the actual story. Like I said it’s an interesting post that got the creative juices writing today for this infertility blog and we are always looking for the latest fertility news to spread the word about. So click that link and by all means pass on the information to any and all the people that you may know that are fighting infertility….. don’t let IF win!