The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is required by law to publish a report on assisted reproductive technologies (ART). ART includes all fertility treatments in which both the egg and the sperm are used. You are helping to prepare the CDC report and select at random 10 ART cycles for a special review. None of the cycles resulted in a clinical pregnancy. Your manager feels it is impossible to select at random 10 ART cycles that did not results in a clinical pregnancy. Use the pie chart in the accompanying document and your knowledge of statistics to determine whether your manager is correct.

How Would You Do It?

How would you determine whether your manager’s view is correct, that it is impossible to select at random 10 ART cycles that did not results in a clinical pregnancy? 

What probability distribution do you think best describes the situation? Do you think the distribution of the number of clinical pregnancies is discrete or continuous? Explain your reasoning.

(Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Results of ART Cycles Using Fresh Nondonor Eggs or Embryos Ectopic pregnancy Clinical 0.7% pregnancy 36.8% No pregnancy 62.4%