Editorial Policy: How We Research and Review

This page explains how the content on this site gets written, what it's based on, how often it's checked, and what happens when something is wrong. Fertility is one of the most misrepresented fields in private healthcare, and most of the information already out there doesn't say where it came from. This page does.

Where the information comes from

Every guide on this site starts from three kinds of source.

Clinical guidelines. Guidance from ESHRE, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and national bodies such as NICE is the baseline for who is offered which treatment, when investigation should start, and what a responsible workup looks like.

Peer-reviewed literature and registry data. For success rates, complication rates and outcomes after freezing, I rely on national registry reports, published studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, mainly from journals such as Human Reproduction, Fertility and Sterility and Human Reproduction Update. Registry data is preferred to anything a clinic publishes about itself, because it is collected the same way across clinics.

Clinic consultation materials. Information packs, consent forms, drug protocols, storage agreements and published price lists. These are the most useful source for what a cycle actually involves week to week, and for realistic cost ranges and what those prices exclude.

Forum posts and social media tell me what questions people have; they aren't used as a source for medical claims.

How success rates are reported here

This is the part that matters most, so it gets its own rule.

• Every figure says which measure it is. Clinics commonly quote clinical pregnancy per transfer, which is the most flattering number available. The number that matters to a patient is the live birth rate per cycle started, and that is the one used here unless a page says otherwise.
• Every figure is given by age band, because age is the dominant variable in almost every fertility outcome.
• Figures are given as ranges, not points. Where the honest answer is "roughly a third, falling steeply through the late thirties", that is what you get, rather than a decimal that implies a precision nobody has.
• Where national registry figures differ from what clinics advertise, the page says so.
• Where the evidence is genuinely contested, such as the benefit of PGT-A, or thin to absent, as it is for most treatment add-ons, the page says that rather than picking a side quietly.

How pages are written and checked

I write everything on this site myself. Before a page goes live, I check every factual claim against at least one of the sources above, and check cost information against current published price lists in the countries named.

Review and updates

Costs, funding rules and registry figures change. Each guide carries a last-reviewed date, and I aim to re-check the following on a fixed schedule:

• Cost pages and funding rules: every six months
• Success-rate figures: whenever a national registry publishes a new annual report, and at least once a year
• Treatment and process pages: once a year, or sooner if significant new research is published
• Clinic directory entries, once the directory opens: once a year, and immediately if a clinic closes, merges or loses accreditation

Independence

This is an independent site that I own and run. It is not affiliated with any clinic, hospital, laboratory, device manufacturer or pharmaceutical company.

• No clinic pays to be listed in the directory, and no one can pay to be ranked higher, featured or described more favourably.
• No content on this site is sponsored.
• The site may carry advertising and may use affiliate links for non-medical products. Advertisers have no say in what's written, and I don't run ads from fertility clinics, drug manufacturers or add-on providers.
• I don't accept free or discounted treatment, travel or accommodation in exchange for coverage.
• I run a medical travel service, Thailand Care, which is a commercial interest in Thai hospitals. It is disclosed on every page where it could matter, Thai clinics get no special treatment in listings or cost tables, and nothing on this site is written to send you to Bangkok.

Law and availability

What is legal varies enormously between countries: donor anonymity, donor payment, sex selection, surrogacy, the number of embryos that may be transferred, storage limits and who is eligible for treatment at all. Thailand, for example, restricts commercial surrogacy and sex selection for foreigners. Where a page names a country, it says what applies there; where it doesn't, assume the rules where you live are different and check.

Corrections

If you find something wrong, whether it's a factual error, an outdated price, a rule that has changed, or a description that doesn't match your experience, please tell me. I'll check it, correct the page if you're right, and note the correction at the bottom of the page along with the date.

What this site is and isn't

This site provides general information about fertility testing and treatment. It is not medical advice, it is not a substitute for a consultation with a qualified clinician, and it does not establish any kind of clinical relationship. Diagnosis, treatment choice and prognosis are individual and can only be assessed by someone who has examined you and seen your results.

I'm not a doctor. I'm someone who has done a lot of reading, asked a lot of questions, and written down what I found so that you don't have to start from nothing.