A new study just published in the journal Human Reproduction took on a question many would-be parents going through in vitro fertilization (IVF) would love to know the answer to: Is there an optimal number of eggs for a woman to produce to significantly raise her chances of giving birth? In looking at data from over 400,000 IVF cycles the U.K. researchers concluded that an egg retrieval of 15 eggs is pretty much ideal. The “live birth rate” (LBR) rose, not surprisingly, with the number of eggs a woman produced – but only up to a point. At 15 to 20 eggs the live birth rate plateaued. And after 20 eggs, the rate steadily declined, the researchers write. And a woman’s age affected LBRs, of course; the study included predicted birth rates for women of various ages with 15 eggs retrieved (based on 2006-2007 data; the IVF cycles studied dated from 1991 to 2008): For women ages 18 to 34 the LBR was 40%; for those 35 to 37 it was 36%; for those 38 and 39 it was 27%; and for women 40 years and older it was 16%.
