The comparison you can't actually make
Before committing to a donor-egg IVF package that can cost several thousand pounds, a patient needs one specific number: a live birth rate for the clinic she would attend, using donor eggs. The HFEA runs Choose a Fertility Clinic, the official clinic comparison tool. It does not show clinic-level donor-egg live birth rates.
The comparison a donor-egg patient is encouraged to make cannot be made from the clinic tool alone. The gap is not only clinic disclosure. It is structural: the national tool shows clinic-level figures for other treatment categories, while donor-egg outcomes are only available nationally.
There is one place the HFEA does publish a donor-egg number: the national dashboard.
Why donor eggs are removed from headline clinic comparisons
Donor eggs accounted for around 6% of UK IVF cycles between 2016 and 2023, but their use varies sharply by clinic. In 2023, some clinics used donor eggs in up to 31% of IVF cycles.
The HFEA says including donor-egg treatments in headline clinic rates could inflate results for clinics that do more donor-egg work, making clinic comparisons less fair.
It stops donor-egg cycles from making some clinics' headline IVF results look stronger than clinics treating mostly own-egg patients.
The same exclusion means donor-egg patients lose the clinic-level outcome data most relevant to their own treatment decision.
So we went looking for it ourselves
When the HFEA comparison tool does not show clinic-level donor-egg rates, patients are pushed back to clinic websites. We checked 41 UK donor-egg provider groups and NHS units across 75 HFEA-licensed locations to see what a patient could actually find.
The problem was not only absence. Among clinics that did publish donor-egg figures, the numbers often used different metrics, different denominators, or different reporting years.
The missing data is not the only problem
Across the 41 audited provider groups, 30 published no donor-egg success rate on their website. Seven published a pregnancy rate, which usually appears higher than a live birth rate and is less useful for comparing likely outcomes. Four published a donor-egg live birth rate. Only three gave enough context to compare with another provider.
A live birth rate is the baseline metric patients need. Pregnancy rates can be useful context, but they do not answer the same question. For most donor-egg patients comparing clinics, the public picture is either blank or measured in a way that does not match their decision.
Some published rates rest on very small samples
Clinics that publish a donor-egg figure deserve credit. But a rate needs a denominator. Several published figures are based on fewer than 20 transfers, where one additional success or failure can move the headline rate by several percentage points.
With 11 transfers, one extra success or failure moves the headline rate by nearly ten points. That is not a stable number.
This is not a criticism of the clinics that disclosed. It is why disclosure needs context.
Small samples and mixed metrics cut in different ways. Fertility Exeter's 35.3% live birth rate is based on 17 transfers. Hull's 45.5% and Shropshire's 22.2% are clinical pregnancy rates based on 11 and 18 transfers. Manchester and King's report larger denominators, but still use clinical pregnancy rather than live birth. These are honest disclosures, but they do not create a clean clinic comparison. A clinic that publishes a fragile or imperfect number is still being more open than one that publishes nothing.
The 11 providers that published something
Most of the audit found absence. Thirty of the 41 audited provider groups published no donor-egg success figure at all. The 11 below published something. The table groups them by reporting format, from donor-egg live birth data down to more limited pregnancy-rate claims.
The silent 30 are the headline, not these 11. The providers listed here disclosed more than most. Grouping them by reporting format shows what useful disclosure looks like, not clinic quality.
| Clinic group | Metric published | Data year | Reporting level | Why it is limited |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live birth rate published | ||||
| London Women's Clinic | Live birth | 2024 | Per lab (3 labs) | Lab-level, fresh and frozen split |
| Fertility Exeter | Live birth | 2023 | Location | Small sample (17 transfers) |
| CRGH | Live birth | 2022 | Brand level | Not split by site |
| TFP Fertility | Live birth | not stated | Brand level | No year or sample size stated |
| Clinical pregnancy rate published | ||||
| King's Fertility | Clinical pregnancy | 2024 | Location | Pregnancy rate, not live birth |
| Hull & East Riding | Clinical pregnancy | 2024 | Location | Pregnancy rate, small sample |
| Manchester Fertility | Clinical pregnancy | 2022 | Location | Pregnancy rate, not live birth |
| IVI London | Clinical pregnancy | 2022 | Location | Pregnancy rate, not live birth |
| Lister Fertility Clinic | Clinical pregnancy | 2022–23 | Brand level | Pregnancy rate, brand-level |
| Shropshire & Mid-Wales | Clinical pregnancy | 2021–25 pooled | Location | Pregnancy rate, small sample, years pooled |
| CARE Fertility | Clinical pregnancy | 2019 | Brand level | Pregnancy rate, dated (2019) |
The reporting years do not line up. Some figures are from 2024, others from 2022, 2023, 2019, or pooled periods, and two do not state a year. The HFEA national benchmark is refreshed annually, but clinic website figures are not updated in the same way.
The three usable cases are still not equal.
2024 live birth rate, broken out by lab across Harley Street, Cardiff, and Darlington. Lab-level reporting is useful for a network where satellite sites feed centralized labs.
2022 donor-egg live birth rate at brand level. Usable, but dated and not split by site.
2023 donor-egg live birth rate at location level. The figure is relevant, but based on 17 transfers.
In this audit, only 3 of 41 audited provider groups gave a UK donor-egg patient a usable clinic-level disclosure.
Why this matters for patients
Donor-egg patients are left without the clinic-level outcome measure most relevant to their treatment: a donor-egg live birth rate.
The UK offers regulated care, but not the clinic-level donor-egg comparison patients may expect. Treatment abroad is not automatically more transparent, but patients comparing UK clinics are making a major financial decision with less public outcome data than they may think.
What to ask any clinic before you book
Use the country shortlist to compare destinations by cost, age limits, donor type, and practical fit. If a UK clinic gives you a donor-egg figure, use the success-rates guide to check the metric, denominator, year, and benchmark.
How the audit was done
The figure is for treatment using donor eggs, not blended with own-egg IVF.
A recent donor-egg live birth rate with enough context to compare providers.
Location, lab, or provider group. The right level depends on how the service is organised: some satellite sites use a central lab, while group-level reporting can hide site variation.
The provider publishes a donor-egg figure, but it is a pregnancy rate, outdated, missing a year, missing a denominator, brand-level without enough context, or otherwise not directly comparable.
No donor-egg success figure found on the provider's public website.
This audit reflects what providers chose to publish publicly, not their actual outcomes. Some clinics may have stronger internal data than their websites show. NHS units in this audit typically do little private donor-egg work, so absence of public data is less meaningful for them than for larger private provider groups.