More than 61,000 babies born in the USA in 2012 were conceived via IVF - hitting a record high, a report shows.

A report by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) shows that 165,172 assisted reproduction procedures were carried out by its member clinics in 2012. More than 99 percent of these procedures were IVF, amounting to 61,740 births, or more than 1.5 percent of all babies born in the country that year. According to SART, this is the largest number of procedures, of babies and percentage of babies born through IVF ever reported.

Gamete intrafallopian transfer and zygote intrafallopian transfer, two other assisted reproduction procedures that are more invasive, made up less than one percent of total procedures carried out.

IVF was most likely to be successful in women under 35, with 46.7 percent of cycles resulting in pregnancy and 40.7 percent resulting in live birth. Women aged above 42 had the lowest success rate, with 8.6 percent of cycles resulting in pregnancy and 3.9 percent resulting in live birth.

The figures also show a year-on-year reduction in the number of twin and triplet births, as fewer embryos were transferred per treatment cycle.

A statement released by SART called this a 'positive trend' and added: 'Reducing multiple births, which can be risky for both mothers and children, has been a major focus of SART and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine over the last decade'.

SART's 379 member clinics represent more than 90 percent of the infertility clinics in the country.

The organisation's president, Dr Charles Coddington, commented: 'Better information leads to better informed patients and physicians, and better treatments. Most importantly, better data leads to more and healthier babies'.

'Our members go to a great deal of time and expense to enable us to collect this information. They know the value of this unique resource'.

Despite the good news of climbing success rates, CNN's report draws attention to the 'prohibitive' high cost of IVF in the USA.

'Most assisted reproductive technologies are not covered by insurance, or the reimbursements are capped', it says.

Reproduced from BioNews with permission, a web- and email-based source of news, information and comment on assisted reproduction and human genetics, published by Progress Educational Trust.