In vitro fertilization

• Around 4,000 women receive IVF treatment each year in public hospitals
• There was a drop in the rate of women receiving public IVF treatment in 2020, and a gradual increase of the rate in the following years
• There is geographical variation in the proportion of women undergoing IVF treatment who are 39 years or older

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most common form of assisted reproduction, where the woman's egg is fertilized outside the body and returned when cell division has started. In Norway, around 4,000 women receive this treatment each year, which corresponds to more than 4 per 1,000 women aged 18-46 years. These numbers only include women who have received transfer of an embryo to the uterus, and are therefore somewhat lower than the actual number of women in IVF treatment.

There was a clear decline in IVF treatments in the corona year 2020, and the rate has since partially recovered to what it was before corona. The catchment areas with the highest rates were the ones with the greatest decline in 2020, something that has contributed to reducing the geographical variation.

There is geographical variation in the proportion of patients who are 39 years or older. In 2024, 4.1% of women in the Fonna catchment area who received IVF treatment were 39 years or older; in Lovisenberg and Diakonhjemmet, this proportion was 29%. These variables are age-adjusted, so the variation is not due to demographic differences between the catchment areas.

This analysis complements the statistics on assisted fertilization on the pages of the Directorate of Health.

The analysis is based on activity data from the Norsk pasientregister (NPR) for somatic specialist health services. This analysis includes only data from public hospitals.

The sample consists of women aged 18-46 years with contacts coded with procedure code LCA30, LCW30K or LCW31K (transfer of egg or embryo to the uterus).

Where the patient is treated is divided into two categories:

• Own health trust, treated at one of the hospitals in the catchment area
• Other health trust, treated at a hospital outside the catchment area

In order to compare the catchment areas and between years, the rates have been adjusted for gender and age. The adjustment was done using the direct method with the countrys population in 2023 as the reference population.

SKDE is solely responsible for the interpretation and presentation of the data provided by NPR. FHI/NPR is not responsible for analyses or interpretations based on the data.

All of the data used in the charts for this analysis can be downloaded as a CSV file.