Past age thirty-five, intrauterine insemination—or the “turkey baster method” in which sperm is inserted into the female reproductive tract—has a 90 to 95 percent failure rate. In vitro fertilization—“IVF” or “in vitro,” when sperm and egg are united outside the body and implanted in the uterus—succeeds only about 10 to 20 percent of the time. In older women, the failure rate for these procedures is so high, many fertility clinics will not perform them on fortysomething women at all.
