How to Use SART Data to Evaluate Fertility Clinics for Donor Egg IVF

When you’re pursuing egg donation to build your family, choosing the right fertility clinic can feel overwhelming. Everyone wants the best outcomes possible and while there’s no perfect formula for picking a clinic, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) database is one tool we have to evaluate IVF clinics.

SART collects detailed outcome data from hundreds of clinics across the U.S., reporting on everything from the number of cycles completed to live birth rates by patient age and treatment type. But understanding what the numbers mean and how to apply them to your unique family-building plans takes a bit of interpretation. For example, a clinic that reports higher live birth rates might simply be selecting patients with fewer fertility barriers, while another with more modest numbers could be working with harder-to-treat cases, including people with diminished ovarian reserve or complex medical histories.

This article walks through how to make sense of the SART Clinic Report, what success rates do (and don’t) tell you, and which filters are most relevant when you’re planning to use donor eggs. We’ll also cover red flags to watch for and other questions you should be asking alongside the data.

What SART data can tell you—and what it can’t

SART data is one of the most widely used sources for clinic success rates, as it reflects real outcomes, including pregnancies and live births after IVF. But it’s not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison tool. For starters, SART data is self-reported by clinics and reviewed for consistency, but not independently audited in full. 

SART data also lags about two years behind, since it only includes cycles that have had time to result in a live birth. If you’re working with a newer clinic, they could be tracking and reporting outcomes to SART but just may not be reflected in the dataset quite yet. 

The data is reported by cycle start, which includes any patient who initiated an IVF cycle, even if they didn’t proceed to egg retrieval or embryo transfer. That means reported live birth rates may include a denominator of patients who never got far enough for the treatment to have a real chance of success. Some clinics work hard to include every patient in their reported data; others may be more selective about who they treat, which can make their success rates appear higher.

Still, if you understand what you’re looking at, SART data can provide real insight, especially when you use filters and hone in on metrics that apply to your situation.

Looking up donor egg cycles in the SART report

To start, you can look up an IVF clinic by name or location here. If a clinic has multiple locations: they may have profiles associated with every location or they may only have profiles associated with their primary labs. The search functionality is also a bit sensitive; if you’re not locating a clinic by name, try searching by city or state. 

When viewing a clinic’s report, you’ll see multiple sections, each focusing on different treatment types: cycles using a patient’s own eggs, cycles using donor eggs, and cycles using donated embryos. For intended parents working with an egg donor and possibly a gestational carrier, the donor egg data is most relevant.

Here’s what you’ll see in the donor egg section:

• Fresh donor egg cycles: These are cycles that involve using fresh donor eggs and a fresh embryo transfer. 
• Frozen donor egg cycles: These are cycles that involve using frozen donor eggs and a fresh embryo transfer.  
• Donor egg thawed embryos: These are cycles using frozen embryos (thawed before transfer) that were made with either fresh or frozen donor eggs.
• Donated embryos: These involve embryo transfers using embryos that were originally created by another individual or couple. These are all frozen embryo transfers. 

Each of these comes with its own success rates, reported by age and often by the number of embryos transferred.

Understand the difference between a Fresh vs Frozen Embryo Transfer.

How to interpret success rates in the SART report

Once you’ve identified the donor egg section of a clinic’s SART report, you can start digging into the numbers. While the report doesn’t include every metric (like implantation rate), it does offer helpful data points to understand how often donor egg cycles result in live births—and how experienced the clinic is with this kind of care.

Here’s how to use the data:

• Look at the total number of embryo transfer procedures. This tells you how many donor egg transfers the clinic performed, which can give you a sense of their experience. A higher number means the clinic is regularly working with donor egg IVF families—an important signal if you’re pursuing this type of treatment.
• Check how many of those transfers resulted in live births. If there are fewer than 10 cycle starts in a category, live births are provided as a fraction. If there are 11 or more cycles, it’s provided as a percentage. While this isn’t a perfect metric, it offers a practical look at how effective the clinic is once a transfer occurs.
• Review singleton vs. multiple birth rates. A high singleton rate suggests the clinic emphasizes single embryo transfer (eSET), which is generally safer for both the carrier and the baby. High twin rates may boost reported pregnancy success but come with higher medical risks.
• If you’re using a gestational carrier (GC), ask the clinic for donor egg + GC outcomes. SART doesn’t break this out, but clinics should be able to provide this data. These cycles tend to be highly optimized and can reflect the clinic’s best-case outcomes.

While the SART report doesn’t show everything, it provides a meaningful snapshot of how well a clinic performs with donor egg cycles and how often they’re managing them. Combine this data with direct questions to the clinic to get a fuller picture of what you can expect.

Consider volume, but don’t assume more is always better

SART data shows how many cycles a clinic performs in a given year. Higher volume can indicate more experience and familiarity with a wide range of cases, but that doesn’t mean bigger is always better. A massive clinic might have shorter visit times, less personalized attention, or limited communication with physicians. Conversely, smaller clinics may offer more personalized care but might not have the same technological resources or lab investment.

Ask yourself what matters more to you: personalized attention and consistency, or access to a busy, highly specialized team? There’s no right answer—just what fits your preferences.

Don’t ignore what’s missing

Some clinics don’t report data to SART at all. While SART participation is voluntary, transparency should be a baseline expectation. If a clinic doesn’t report, ask why. It might be a red flag, or it might be an early-stage clinic without a full year of data yet.

It’s also worth noting that SART doesn’t report standalone success rates for thawed eggs (only fresh embryo transfers). So if you’re using frozen donor eggs—or if you’re planning to freeze embryos now and transfer later—those specific success rates won’t be visible. In those cases, ask the clinic directly about their outcomes from egg thaw cycles and embryo transfers using frozen material.

Be cautious about over-interpreting live birth per cycle

Clinics are incentivized to make their live birth per retrieval cycle look high, which can lead to some concerning practices like encouraging patients to transfer an embryo right away instead of banking multiple embryos for future family-building, or discouraging care for “poor responders” who may require multiple retrievals. These choices may boost reported rates but aren’t always in a patient’s best interest.

For intended parents hoping to have more than one child using the same donor, it may be smarter to focus on embryo banking before any transfer. But this approach - although strategic - can negatively impact the clinic’s live birth per cycle numbers. That’s why it's important to ask how your clinic approaches embryo banking and cumulative success planning.

Other questions to ask beyond the numbers

While SART data is valuable, it’s only one part of the clinic evaluation process. Consider also asking:

• What’s the average number of embryos your clinic transfers per cycle?
• How do you support intended parents using donor eggs or gestational carriers?
• What’s the experience like for people working with donor eggs?

You might also want to explore patient reviews on sites like FertilityIQ or attend a clinic info session to get a better feel for their values and communication style.

Bottom line

SART data can be a powerful tool when selecting a fertility clinic if you know how to use it wisely. Focus on donor egg cycles, apply relevant filters, and pay close attention to metrics like number of transfers, singleton birth rate, and outcomes per embryo transfer. Use the data to inform your questions, not as the only measure of quality.

Look for transparency, clarity, and a clinic that welcomes your questions. The right data can support your decision, but trust and care matter just as much.

If you work with Cofertility, we can help connect you with one of our many clinic partners. 

Read more:

• How Do You Know if an IVF Clinic's Lab is Good? Here Are The Questions to Ask
• 10 Things Your Fertility Clinic Won't Tell You About Using Donor Eggs
• What are Some Tips on How to Find the Best Fertility Clinic?