You may be aware that the changes made to the Choose a fertility clinic function on our website have been the subject of a legal challenge brought by the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC).
The Court gave a judgment in March 2017 about the lawfulness of the changes but this was subject to an Appeal by ARGC to the Court of Appeal for which permission was granted by the Court giving the reason that the appeal raises important issues. Following constructive discussions, the HFEA and ARGC have agreed that some changes will be made to the current HFEA’s website in full and final settlement of the appeal.
The HFEA regards these changes as improvements. Additional information has been added and some formatting changed to improve the flow of the information and add greater clarity. The key metrics and the underlying data for individual clinics remain as before, but the website now makes it clearer that the different measurements typically used to present the success rates of clinics - namely: births per embryo transferred, births per egg collection and births per cycle started - all have their pros and cons and that a clinic may use any or all of them in discussions with patients (about their treatment).
The website has always made it clear that single embryo transfer is not suitable for every patient and we have now added a link on the clinic page of Choose a fertility clinic to best practice guidelines of professional bodies, which assist clinics to determine when a single embryo should be transferred and the factors which can make double embryo transfer more appropriate.
Moreover, the website also now emphasises at the home page of each clinic that more detailed statistics, including births per cycle started and births per embryo transferred in the various age groups, are available for patients who would like more information on the overall performance of the clinic they are interested in.
Publication date: 9 April 2026