Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) is one common fertility treatment option for those who are having difficulty conceiving or who need to use a surrogate mother. However, it's not as well known or as commonly used as in vitro fertilization (IVF). This may lead you to wonder what your chances of having a child through ZIFT are and whether or not you should consider the procedure.
The Success Rate
The success rate of zygote intrafallopian transfer has been marked at between 25% and 40%, although the current average is 29.2%. This means that approximately one in every three ZIFT procedures results in a successful pregnancy, although it's possible your success rate will increase or decrease depending on your age and health.
Increasing Your Chances of Success
Women who are thirty-four or younger have the greatest chance of becoming pregnant successfully with zygote intrafallopian transfer because their rate of releasing eggs is still fairly steady. Younger women also have significantly lower chances of coming down with complications during the pregnancy.
However, that's not to say that the process won't work for women who are older than thirty-four, as there are hormonal treatments that can increase the success rate for women who are thirty-nine or older, and there's also the option of using a younger donor's eggs, which is a near-necessity for women at age forty-five or older. However, the treatment is not recommended (although may still be possible) if you're in your late forties or older, as the success rate, especially with using your own eggs, will become almost 0% at that time.
Chance of Multiple Births
Because the process involves implantation of more than one zygote (fertilized egg) in order to increase the chances that at least one zygote will take, zygote intrafallopain transfer actually carries with it a higher rate of multiple births than getting pregnant naturally or through a fertility treatment such as gamete intrafallopian transfer. If you successfully beat the one in three odds of having a child, your chances of having two or more children in the same pregnancy is 35%. While this may be welcome news, especially if it's twins or triplets at most, you may become pregnant with many more than that. This will raise the issue of whether or not you should have a partial abortion, for your own health as well as for the healthy development of the remaining children.
Comparing Success Rates
The success rate of zygote intrafallopian transfer is less than in vitro fertilization (IVF), which averages 31%, but may be as high as 35%, depending on your age and health (the younger and healthier, the higher the success rate). Because IVF is less invasive than ZIFT (ZIFT will require you to be put under anesthesia or at least have a local anesthetic on your abdomen as your specialist makes an incision through the abdomen directly into your fallopian tubes) and the success rate is higher, ZIFT is recommended a lot less often than it used to be.
Zygote intrafallopian transfer may not be the fertility treatment with the highest success rate, but it's not the fertility treatment with the lowest success rate, either. If this procedure seems appealing to you, discuss it in further detail with your fertility specialist.
