IFFS Surveillance 2016: 7th Edition

Surveillance 2016 serves as a record and an overview of the practice, policies and activities associated with assisted reproductive technology (ART) as it existed globally, at the end of 2015. It also, provides an evaluation of specific national and global trends over time that concern specific, and sometimes controversial, topics and issues. The respondents for the 2016 edition represent the majority of countries with the most active ART services worldwide; however, the experiences of over 100 countries are not depicted in this report despite intensive efforts to find representative respondents to include them. The responses to the questionnaire were provided by one or two well-informed individuals in each country but these responses were not validated and may contain inherent accuracies. Caution should be taken when interpreting or re-presenting these data. There are limitations in the completeness and quality of the surveillance data reported, including the variability in respondents from countries who provided feedback to surveys in 2013 versus in 2016. Nevertheless, this report remains the only source of information that provides a global overview of ART practices. Potential partnerships with other global organizations and an increase in awareness of this IFFS data collection should improve the quality in years to come. Nevertheless, Surveillance 2016 attests to a robust and expanding scope of ART practices, policies, and activities among nations around the world while highlighting significant and important differences with a review of trends that have occurred the triennium.