In the early stages of coping with fertility issues, often the woman sees a gynecologist and the man sees a urologist. Infertility specialists understand the big picture, and are familiar with the many factors that can play into infertility. Infertility clinics specialize in helping couples to get pregnant, and are able to approach that goal from numerous directions depending on what the specific problem is.
In 1988, the federal government passed the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment, which required accreditation of all laboratories. In addition to this basic accreditation, experts also highly recommend that infertility laboratories be accredited by a national organization such as the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation (COLA) or the American College of Pathologists (CAP).
The Fertility Clinic Success Rate and Certification Act was passed in 1992. It directed the steps the government would take toward certification of embryo laboratories, and also required ART (assisted reproductive technologies) programs to publish their success rates annually through the Centers for Disease Control.
These success rates are now widely available. However, it is not always possible to use these figures to compare one clinic to another, since some clinics specialize in treatments for more difficult fertility issues than other clinics do. Ask whether the figures for a given clinic include statistics for women over 40 or for men with male factor.