Quality assurance and quality control in reproductive medicine: National and international organizations [Qualitätssicherung und qualitätskontrolle in der reproduktionsmedizin: Nationale und internationale einrichtungen]

The German IVF Registry (Deutsches IVF-Register; DIR) has been reporting data on assisted reproduction in Germany since 1982. Since then the number of participating centres has increased considerably. While in 1982 only 742 treatments had been performed in Germany, in 2007 11,255 treatments with conventional IVF, 30,921 treatments with ICSI and 16,312 cryo cycles were reported. In 2007 the clinical pregnancy rate after conventional IVF was 30.44% per embryo transfer and 28.80% after ICSI. The European IVF Monitoring Consortium (EIM) within the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) includes all IVF registries in Europe. The EIM report reflects treatment data from 30 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Irland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Slowakia, Slowenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Hungary. Without a doubt the German IVF registry is among the best worldwide. However, even there pitfalls can be found. A remarkable example was the discussion in 2007 on the unclarified number of selective fetocides taking place in Germany. © 2009 Springer Medizin Verlag.