Success with infertility treatment is defined as pregnancy per cycle. It is essential to understand what the chances of pregnancy are with and without treatment to avoid frustration and disappointment:
The pregnancy rate after one year of infertility without treatment is approximately 4% per cycle (i.e. four couples out of 100 per one month).
After two years it drops to 2% per cycle, and after three years it is <1% per cycle. With treatment, there are a lot of variables that affect the pregnancy rate.
The most critical variable is the age of the female partner. In general, when you look at all patients using oral medication, pregnancy rates are 8-10%/cycle.
For Injections and IUI, it is 20% per cycle and 50% after three cycles.
For IVF or ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), it is around 50% per cycle.
85% of the pregnancies happen in the first three cycles, with 15% happening over the next three cycles of any particular treatment. In other words, you must try several cycles before moving on to the next level of treatment.