How many IVF cycles does it take to get pregnant? What MOH's figures show

Among women in Singapore who had a baby through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), most needed one or two cycles. The Ministry of Health (MOH) gave that count to Parliament in February 2021, on its data from 2008 to 2020. At least one in four of these women had her baby on the first cycle, and at least three in four by the second.

That count covers only the women who had a baby. Those who stopped without one are not in it.

In IVF, eggs are collected and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The embryo, the egg once fertilised, is then placed in the womb. Each round of IVF is called a cycle.

Age moves the odds more than the number of tries. On 8 October 2026, MOH put the IVF success rate at 18.4% for women aged 35 to 39, 12.1% at 40, 7.8% at 42 and 3.7% at 44. In plain numbers, that is fewer than 1 in 5 at 35 to 39, and under 4 in 100 at 44.

For a couple where at least one of you is a Singapore Citizen, the government pays part of the bill for up to six IVF cycles at a public hospital. This is called co-funding. The six are three fresh cycles, each with a new egg collection, and three frozen ones, each using an embryo saved from an earlier cycle.

Below is what MOH’s figures mean, where the six cycles run short, and how each extra cycle changes the bill. If you have not started IVF yet, our guide to getting pregnant covers trying on your own first.

What MOH’s count shows, and who it leaves out

MOH gave the count in a written answer to Parliament on 16 February 2021, as the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles. To read them, line up every woman who had an IVF baby by the number of cycles she went through. Then read off the woman a quarter, half and three quarters of the way along.

MOH’s answer was one cycle at the quarter mark, and two cycles at both the half and the three-quarter marks. It counted live births, meaning babies born alive, not pregnancies, because a live birth “better reflects the end-outcome of successful IVF”. It added that the figures for pregnancy are similar.

A few weeks earlier, in January 2021, MOH gave Parliament an average as well. Among women who achieved a pregnancy, it said, “these women undergo an average of 2 AR cycles before doing so”. AR stands for assisted reproduction, MOH’s name for IVF and its variations.

Before you lean on the count, know what it does not cover:

• It leaves out every woman who stopped without a baby, and every woman still trying. It describes the women IVF worked for, not the odds for a couple starting now.
• It gives no split by age, so it cannot tell you what to expect at 37 rather than 32.
• It runs from 2008 to 2020. MOH’s October 2026 answer gave no newer count.

Why age matters more than the number of tries

On 8 October 2026, a Member of Parliament asked MOH for the average number of IVF cycles needed for a pregnancy. MOH’s answer gave no average. It said a woman’s age and her medical history are “a more significant driver of the success rate” than the number of cycles, and gave its rates by age.

The rate more than halves between the late thirties and 42. At 44 it is under 4 in 100, and MOH says it “drops further with age”.

MOH did not say how it measured the rate: per cycle or per woman, or counting pregnancies or live births. So read it as MOH’s figure for each age, not as your chance on any one try.

The 2026 answer starts at 35, so for younger women, look to MOH’s figures by age from January 2021. They are averages for 2014 to 2018: 26.6% below 30, 24.6% from 30 to 34, 17.1% from 35 to 39, and 6.7% from 40 up. MOH did not say how it measured these either.

Because MOH names medical history beside age, your own odds depend on your tests as well as your age. Your doctor is the one to put a figure on them.

Does the chance go up with each cycle?

Each cycle is another chance, but MOH says the extra cycles count for less as a couple gets older. In its words, “the number of cycles will have diminishing marginal impact on the success rate”. Put simply, each further try adds less to the odds than the one before.

The same reasoning sits behind the cap. MOH told Parliament in January 2021 that it set the six co-funded cycles on medical evidence that the success rate “decreases with age, as each successive cycle progresses”.

MOH has also published how often a cycle at the three public centres ended in a live birth. It split the figures by whether the cycle was co-funded. A cycle without co-funding is one where, in MOH’s words, the couple had gone past the limits or did not meet the rules, among other reasons.

In each of the three years, a co-funded cycle ended in a live birth more often. MOH gave no reason for the gap, or for the drop in the co-funded rate from 2021 to 2023. It did not split these figures by age.

None of these MOH figures gives the chance of a baby over two or three cycles together, for one age band. Adding up the rates above would give a guess, not a measured figure, so this page gives none.

How many IVF cycles the government co-funds

The Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) co-funding scheme pays part of up to six IVF cycles at the three public centres: National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH). ART is MOH’s term for IVF and its variations. The six are three fresh cycles and three frozen ones.

A fresh cycle runs the whole process: medicine to grow eggs, egg collection, and fertilisation in the laboratory. A frozen cycle, or frozen embryo transfer (FET), uses an embryo frozen from an earlier fresh cycle, so it skips those steps. One fresh cycle that leaves spare embryos can lead to frozen tries without another egg collection.

On MOH’s scheme page, a cycle is co-funded when all four of these are true:

• You or your spouse is a Singapore Citizen at the start of the cycle.
• You are below 40 at the start of the cycle, except for the last two of the six.
• A doctor has assessed that you meet the medical requirements for treatment.
• You have not already had three co-funded fresh and three co-funded frozen cycles.

Up to two of the six can take place at 40 or over, as long as you had already tried IVF, or intra-uterine insemination (IUI), before 40. IUI is an artificial insemination procedure, a simpler treatment than IVF. MOH ties the age rule to the evidence: it told Parliament in January 2021 that after 40, the success rate “decreases significantly”.

Set against MOH’s count, six cycles is more than most women who had a baby needed, since at least three in four of them needed two or fewer. For a woman in her late thirties, the age rule can bite first. If you turn 40 with four co-funded cycles unused, at most two of them can still be co-funded.

How the number of cycles drives the bill

Co-funding pays up to the same cap on every cycle of a given type. MOH told Parliament in 2019 that the amount “does not decrease” with each further attempt.

MediSave works the other way. It is your personal healthcare savings account, part of your Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings.

For IVF, MediSave can pay up to S$6,000 on the first cycle, S$5,000 on the second and S$4,000 on the third and each one after. A lifetime limit of S$15,000 per patient sits over all of them (as of October 2026).

Those three cycle limits add up to S$15,000. A woman who uses the full limit on her first three cycles has reached the lifetime limit before her fourth. So if each cycle costs the same, the cash you pay goes up with every try.

Frozen cycles soften this. MOH says a frozen cycle costs less than a fresh one, because it skips the medicine to grow eggs, the egg collection and the fertilisation that a fresh cycle needs.

Is it worth doing more than three IVF cycles?

No group figure can answer that for one couple. MOH’s figures can show where a fourth cycle stands.

Among women who had a baby through IVF, at least three in four needed two cycles or fewer. So a fourth cycle is past the point where most of them had their baby. But the count leaves out women who never had one, so it cannot give your chance on a fourth try.

MOH also says extra cycles count for less as a couple gets older. A fourth cycle can still be co-funded within the six, as long as the fresh and frozen limits and the age rule allow it. If MediSave paid its full limit on your first three cycles, though, the fourth gets no MediSave.

Your doctor can set your own test results against these group figures.

After the six co-funded cycles

Once you have had three co-funded fresh and three co-funded frozen cycles, further cycles get no co-funding. Further cycles can still be done at the public centres: MOH counts them among the cycles without co-funding in the table above.

Before you reach that point, one swap changes the mix within the six. MOH told Parliament in January 2021 that a couple who has used one fresh and three frozen cycles can ask MOH to co-fund a fourth frozen cycle. That cycle comes out of an unused fresh one, and its co-funding is capped at the frozen-cycle limit.

MediSave can still pay at public and private centres, up to its limits, until the S$15,000 lifetime limit is used. Private centres get no co-funding at any point.

Whether to keep trying is for the two of you and your doctor to decide. MOH’s own answer called the wish to keep trying “totally understandable”.

Your next step: price the cycles at your first consult

MOH’s figures describe large groups of women. Your next step is to turn them into a count and a price for the two of you. Take these four questions to your first consult.

1. Ask what success rate the centre sees for women your age, and whether it counts per cycle or per woman, and pregnancies or live births.
2. Ask how many embryos a fresh cycle is likely to give you, and whether spare ones can be frozen for later tries.
3. Count the co-funded fresh and frozen cycles you have used, and work out how many may fall after your 40th birthday, when at most two of the six can be co-funded.
4. Ask for a written estimate for each cycle. Then check the cash left on each one after co-funding and the MediSave limit for that cycle’s number.

Wei Chun

Founder & Editor

A Singapore parent writing the guide he wished he'd had — practical, calm, and grounded in what actually works.

chunguy.comMy Miracle Baby