IVF clinics and success data in Maryland
7,381 procedures, 6 reporting clinics.

Maryland's ART use is well above the U.S. rate

Source: CDC, State-Specific ART Surveillance, 2021 Data Brief (published December 2023). Procedures exclude cycles in which eggs or embryos were only banked.

Procedures for Maryland residents in 2021 included 5,739 embryo transfers and resulted in 2,415 live-birth deliveries and 2,487 live-born infants. Counted another way, 2,311 of the 68,285 infants born to Maryland mothers during 2021 were conceived with ART. One count follows the procedures started in 2021; the other counts births in the calendar year.

CDC assigns procedures and births to the patient's state of residence. A Maryland resident treated at a clinic in another state counts as Maryland, so these figures may not match the clinics located in Maryland.

The first three phases of an IVF cycle

Map to the Positive describes IVF as a 4 to 6 week process in five phases. Knowing what each phase is for reduces anxiety. The first three:

1. Ovarian stimulation (8 to 12 days): daily injections to mature several eggs, ultrasound every 2 to 3 days, and a trigger shot when follicles reach 18 to 20 mm.
2. Egg retrieval (1 day): an outpatient procedure under light sedation, 20 to 30 minutes, 34 to 36 hours after the trigger; discharge usually within 2 hours.
3. Fertilization and culture (3 to 6 days): conventional IVF or ICSI in the lab, with embryos reaching the blastocyst stage on day 5 to 6.

Most women describe the injections as less painful than they expected.

This is one chapter. The map has 42.

The five phases of IVF, the side effects to expect and the myths to drop are in Chapter 35 of Map to the Positive, in Station IV. The same station explains when to see a specialist and how to choose the doctor who will guide you.