Parliamentary QA
Success rates for subsidised AR cycles
2 August 2017
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Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang
MP for Nee Soon GRC
Question No. 550
To ask the Minister for Health how many couples and what is the percentage of couples who did not have a successful pregnancy after the three cycles of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) treatment that is subsidised by the Government.
Written Reply
1 Under the assisted reproductive technology (ART) co-funding scheme, eligible couples can receive up to 75% in co-funding from the Government for ART treatment cycles, for a maximum of 3 fresh and 3 frozen ART cycles, until the patient reaches 40 years of age.
2 MOH’s AR database captures information on the number of live-births by individual ART cycles, and thus the success and failure rates at each cycle. Of Government-funded cycles of ART between 2013 and 2015, 75.3% were unsuccessful after the first cycle. This figure increased to 79.3% and 81.9% after the second and third cycles respectively. The likelihood of a successful cycle of ART is higher for those who are younger.
Note: Please refer to Annex A for the breakdown by year.
ANNEX A
Data for unsuccessful co-funded AR cycles
Table 1
Table caption
Number of Govt Co-funded Cycles | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Average 2013 to 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1st Co-funding | 1689 | 1967 | 1985 | 1880 |
2nd Co-funding | 527 | 729 | 918 | 725 |
3rd Co-funding | 149 | 210 | 309 | 223 |
Total | 2365 | 2906 | 3212 | 2828 |
Table 2
Table caption
Number of Govt Co-funded Cycles with no Live Birth Pregnancy | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Average 2013 to 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1st Co-funding | 1291 | 1476 | 1482 | 1416 |
2nd Co-funding | 419 | 560 | 745 | 575 |
3rd Co-funding | 126 | 176 | 245 | 182 |
Total | 1836 | 2212 | 2472 | 2173 |
Table 3
Table caption
% of unsuccessful cycles (Govt Co-funded Cycles) | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Average 2013 to 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1st Co-funding | 76.4 | 75.0 | 74.7 | 75.3 |
2nd Co-funding | 79.5 | 76.8 | 81.2 | 79.3 |
3rd Co-funding | 84.6 | 83.8 | 79.3 | 81.9 |
Total | 77.6 | 76.1 | 77.0 | 76.9 |
p-value of test for trend | 0.011 | 0.009 | 0.001 | 0.006 |
Note: The ART co-funding scheme was enhanced in 2013 to extend co-funding to an additional 3 frozen cycles, on top of the previous maximum of 3 fresh cycles. The increase in unsuccessful rates across the 3 co-funded cycles was significant for all the individual years as well as the average across the 3 years (p<0.05).