After numerous attempts at trying to conceive, a patient may elect to try in vitro fertilization (IVF). But questions remain if this is the best route to take for a particular individual.

It's an all too common scenario that some are faced with according to Christopher Jones, MD, CEO of FORMYODDS.COM (Chicago).

But thanks in part to an algorithm-based method the company has devised, women undergoing IVF can complete an online survey that will determine if they will in fact become pregnant from the procedure.

The results are touted to have an accuracy of 80%.

"It presents them with a method for determining if they're taking home a baby at the end of the day," Jones told Medical Device Daily. "FORMYODDS.COM is such a breakthrough because it predicts the take-home baby rate using population-based data."

Based on 20 predictive variables, the model was tested using one of the world's largest IVF datasets comprising more than 170,000 treatment cycles.

"Stated simply, if one hundred women with similar clinical characteristics underwent an IVF cycle using 1, 2 or 3 embryos, a certain number will give birth. Of those who give birth, a certain percentage will give birth to twins. Knowing these percentages can help with many planning aspects such as the timing of treatment," says Dr. Louis Keith a co-founder of the business.

Women filling out the survey are asked a plethora of questions, including ethnicity, if they've had a miscarriage, to importance of the skill and competency of a care team.

"The test base is so extensive that even if a woman doesn't fit the test population in our database we would still be able to take an average of people in our database that had similar attributes to that person to come up with a result," Jones said.

The questions give the company a clearer picture to draw from when coming to a conclusion. At that time the patient will receive a personal letter from staff at the company letting them know the possibility of having a child. The cost of the test is roughly $500.

With the purchase of the Standard Take-home Baby Report the patient would receive a personalized letter with calculations that illustrate the embryo-specific take home baby rate as well as the probability of taking home twins if the patient's IVF cycle is successful. The patient will also receive probabilities for their chances of success if they delay IVF treatment by one year and five years, according to the company.

"The letter they would get back would be thank you for your recent purchase ... based on a population of women that fit your description or who have similar clinical characteristics, the following are your odds of success. We overlay that information with the possibility of twins," Jones said. "Those births can at times be problematic and they're almost always premature."

He added, "This is an aid to patients considering IVF but not a substitute for a medical diagnosis." "The letter or report should be discussed with the patient's doctor. Again it's not a diagnosis but it is an educated guess. But an educated guess is much better than a guess in the dark."

To date, in the U.S. IVF has a success rate about 27% per cycle (33% pregnancy rate), and the chances of a successful pregnancy via IVF vary widely based on the age of the woman (or, more precisely, on the age of the eggs involved). Where the woman's own eggs are used as opposed to those of a donor, for women under 35, the pregnancy rate is commonly about 43% per cycle (36.5% live birth), while for women over 40, the rate falls drastically to only 4% for women over 42. Other factors that determine success rates include the quality of the eggs and sperm, the duration of the infertility, the health of the uterus, and the medical expertise.

"What if today is not the right time for IVF? FORMYODDS.COM shows what will happen if the next IVF cycle is completed within one month, compared with next year, five years or after additional cycles of IVF. Women need to know their chances under real scenarios," said Timothy R. B. Johnson, MD, Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and "FORMYODDS.COM pools all the variables together in a manner that is meaningful for the fertility doctor, cost-effective and immediately useful for counseling."

In the future, there are plans to expand the test parameters toward diseases and give some predictions on a person's likelihood to develop cancer.

Although the private company was officially started in January of this year, its roots date back to research by Jones that started in 1999. That research led to the formation of the company's database.