Choosing a Fertility Clinic
Choosing a fertility clinic is choosing who looks after the most precious thing you will ever hand over: your eggs, your sperm and your embryos. Most of what decides your result happens where you never see it, in the laboratory, and the best clinics are the ones that take that unseen work as seriously as the consultation room.
I have spent more than a decade coordinating patients through hospitals and clinics in Bangkok, and the same handful of things separates the excellent from the ordinary everywhere: a laboratory with outside accreditation and an experienced embryology team, success rates reported transparently, and a doctor who explains the plan and stays with you through it.
If you are choosing in Thailand, my ranked list of the best IVF clinics in Thailand applies exactly these standards, and the clinic directory has a profile for each.
On this page
The laboratory comes first
In IVF, the eggs are collected in a few minutes and the embryo is transferred in a few more. Everything in between, fertilisation, five or six days of growth, grading, freezing and thawing, happens in the laboratory. The skill of the embryologists and the stability of the conditions they work in have as much to do with your result as anything the doctor does.
Signs of a strong laboratory are easy to ask about. The lab itself should hold outside accreditation. It should have an experienced senior embryologist, and a team large enough that someone with the same skill is on at weekends, because egg collections do not wait for Monday. Look for time-lapse incubators, which let embryologists watch embryos grow without taking them out, and a good record with freezing by vitrification, since so many transfers now use frozen embryos. Where you need it, in-house genetic testing of embryos completes the picture.
A beautiful waiting room tells you nothing about any of this. Ask to hear about the lab, and notice how readily the clinic answers.
Accreditation that means something
Look for outside inspection of both the hospital or clinic and its laboratory. The names you will meet most often are:
- JCI (Joint Commission International), which inspects whole hospitals and clinics against international safety standards
- RTAC (the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee of Australia and New Zealand), one of the most respected accreditations specific to fertility clinics, held by a number of clinics in Asia
- ISO 15189 or ISO 9001, international standards for medical laboratories and for quality management
- National licensing, such as the HFEA in the UK, or a licence under Thailand's assisted reproduction law
National licensing is the minimum. A clinic that has also invited an international body to inspect its laboratory has chosen to be measured against the best, and that tells you a great deal.
Reading success rates
Every clinic reports success rates, and they are not all measuring the same thing. The figure that answers your question is the live birth rate per cycle started, for your age group. Everything else is a step on the way to it.
Watch for these:
- Pregnancy rate rather than live birth rate. A positive test is not a baby, and the gap between the two is largest in older age groups.
- Per transfer rather than per cycle started. Cycles that are cancelled, or produce no embryos to transfer, drop out of a per-transfer figure, which makes it look higher.
- An overall figure with no age bands. A clinic that treats many younger patients will always look better than one that treats many older ones, whatever its quality.
- Small numbers. A rate based on a handful of cycles in your age band can swing a long way from year to year.
The fairest figure of all is the cumulative live birth rate: the chance of a baby from one egg collection, counting every frozen transfer that follows. More clinics now report it, so ask for it.
When you look at a clinic's results
Find your own age band before you read anything else, and look only at that row. It stops the headline figure for younger patients from setting your expectations.
How the clinic practises
A few habits mark out the clinics that put your result and your safety first.
Single embryo transfer. Transferring one embryo at a time, and freezing the rest, gives you nearly the same chance of a baby over a full course of treatment with far fewer twin pregnancies. Twins carry real risks for mother and babies, and the best clinics make one-at-a-time the default.
A clear view on add-ons. Endometrial scratching, embryo glue, immune treatments and assisted hatching are offered widely. Some help particular patients, while many have little good evidence behind them. A clinic that tells you which ones it does not recommend, and why, is a clinic you can trust with the rest of the plan.
Continuity. Ask whether you will see the same doctor through the cycle, and who does your egg collection and your transfer. Seeing one doctor who knows your history makes a long process feel far more manageable.
Clear communication. You should know who to call with a question, how quickly they answer, and how results reach you. In an IVF cycle, a day's delay in a reply can matter.
Questions that reveal a great clinic
I would put these to every clinic on a shortlist:
- What is your live birth rate per cycle started for my age group, and how many cycles is it based on?
- Is your laboratory accredited, and by whom?
- Who is the senior embryologist, and how long have they been with you?
- How many embryos do you transfer for someone like me?
- Which add-ons do you not recommend?
- What happens if my cycle is cancelled or no embryo reaches transfer?
- What exactly does your quoted price include?
The answers matter, and so does how they come. A clinic that answers each one plainly, without steering you back to its headline rate, is showing you how it will treat you through the whole cycle.
Location and logistics
An IVF cycle needs several scans and blood tests over about two weeks, often at short notice, and the egg collection is timed to the hour. If you are treated near home, the drive to the clinic matters more than it seems on day one.
If you are travelling, the best clinic for you may be in another city or another country. Many international patients come to Bangkok for exactly this reason: accredited laboratories, experienced teams and prices well below the US. See fertility treatment in Thailand for how a cycle there works in practice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most important thing when choosing an IVF clinic?
The quality of the laboratory, followed by transparent success rates for your age. See the laboratory comes first.
What success rate should I look at?
The live birth rate per cycle started, for your age group. See reading success rates.
Are bigger clinics better?
Not automatically, but a busier lab with a large, experienced embryology team usually has more consistent results and better weekend cover.
Should I worry if a clinic recommends lots of add-ons?
Ask what the evidence is for each one. The best clinics are clear about which add-ons they don't recommend. See how the clinic practises.