SURVEY: How much have you spend on fertility treatments?

30 posts on this thread and the last post was on June 27th, 2008 4:09 PM by Blakey

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Blakey - June 16th, 2008 1:23 PM

Hi! We have been with my clinic and RE for 3+years, paying out of pocket for mostly everything. We have done 4IUIs, (2with clomid, 2 injectable cycles with follistin)- then moved onto IVF/ICSI, we have done 3 completed cycles, made it to retrieval and transfer all 3 times. We have easily spent about $40,000. IVF cycles here in MA cost about 10k, and even though MA is a mandated state, we don't have coverage because our INs. is federal. We are on a break right now, due to funds, and are trying to decide our next step. It is very $$$$, and hopefully we can proceed sometime soon!! GL I know how stressful this road is!!! Hugs!

CarolinaCowgirl - June 16th, 2008 3:09 PM

Blakely: thanks for sharing your story! WOW, I sure wish you the best......you deserve a baby! Is there a diagnosed reason for your infertility? just curious.......looks like I will be praying clomid works. I don't think I could even afford to seek counsel from a RE.

cromwell - June 17th, 2008 4:34 PM

CarolinaCowgirl, our clomid cycles were cheap, just the drugs, the scans and IUI. Some of this was covered, although none of the drugs --and they are a very big investment. I think our IVF cycle ran around $10K just for that one -maybe a little more. That is with some of the scans being covered somehow through some creative coding on the part of my RE. When we calculated the total cost of 2007 for last year --all IUI with injectables, it was more like $18K. I once read in Sherm Silber's book --web page is www.infertile.com--that if you are my age, might as well go straight to IVF because you will waste a bunch of money with the other stuff. I was 37 when I started. My clinic had a 44% success rate with the 37-39 year old ladies in 2007 (67% success with 35-37). This is a small clinic in the midwest. The caveat is that it is a small clinic with good embryologists. Anyway, now I wish we had just skipped the clomid altogether and only done a couple of IUI/inj cycles. Then I would not be 40 when I want to try again (and the success rates are much lower). Theoretically if you are younger, you will eventually pay a lot less. It is us older gals having less success. My dh and I might need to use a donor next time and that adds to the bill, however, you hope a LOT of embies get made and then you don't need to pay for a cycle all over again. Laurie

CarolinaCowgirl - June 17th, 2008 10:02 PM

Laurie: thank you so much for sharing. I'm 34. Since I have the 3 months of clomid, I think I'll take it and see. By then, I'll be getting very impatient and may go see a RE by the end of the year. It sure helps to read other's experiences so I'll know what I'll be getting into.

CarolinaCowgirl - June 25th, 2008 2:43 PM

i would like to keep this going..........id like to know the expense of those who just took iui........then ivf, etc...........knowledge is wisdom........please share

Magoos27 - June 25th, 2008 3:23 PM

Well, I am very fortunate. Being in the military I get most of my meds for free and the u/s are free. I have done 6 IUIs (3 w/clomid a.k.a. crazy pills and 3 with Gonal F) finally we went and did IVF. We had to pay out of pocket a little over $7k. I am not 6 weeks preganant and it was totally worth it. If I had it to do all over again, I would skip IUIs and go straight to IVF. The success rates with IUI are just a little better than meds and timed intercourse. So why go through months and months of heartbreak and spend so much money out of pocket on copays, skip all the B.S. and go the aggressive route. Just my opinion.

CarolinaCowgirl - June 25th, 2008 5:37 PM

magoos......thanks for sharing, it helps.......i hope i wont need to go to all of that, but if i do by others sharing their experiences I will feel more comfortable making decisions..........just trying to prepare in case

hope-31 - June 25th, 2008 7:01 PM

i am so fortunate that i have excellent insurance so we have no co-pays and unlimited iui's and ivf's. i only wish that i didnt have to be so happy about this kind of coverage and i can just get pregnant and carry a baby to term,that would be a dream. anyone doing iui's w/clomid and trigger? i would love to talk with someone who is in the same boat.

hendy - June 25th, 2008 7:53 PM

Hi CC! Interesting thread topic! I am so lucky to live in MA and have insurance coverage for fertitlity. I have done 3 rounds of clomid but am clomid resistant, 2 iui's with injectibles, and now two fresh IVFs and only paid copays. No success yet. I have lots of emb-sicles frozen so I will do a couple rounds of frozen embryo transfer next. My insurance will cover 6 fresh IVF cycles. Best of luck with your journey!!! And hello to everyone else- I recognize a lot of names from other threads :)

CarolinaCowgirl - June 25th, 2008 10:03 PM

i knew i shouldve moved up north.....lol, thats great that they cover some of this stuff.........mine covers zilch.....which is why im interested......im slowly in this process trying to pay as i go along as not to get in debt

abi_77 - June 26th, 2008 6:04 PM

hendy, is there a fertility maximum with your insurance? My insurance has no limit on IUI and 4 fresh IVF cycles. But there is also a ife time maximum of $15,000.

CarolinaCowgirl - June 26th, 2008 8:09 PM

wow....ya'll are makin me jealous.....how great to know that insurance companies are slowly coming around.......its interesting how those up north seem to have more coverage than in the south.....or maybe im wrong......but thats what ive been reading

Tamika2008 - June 27th, 2008 3:47 PM

Hope-31 what insurance do you have??

abi_77 - June 27th, 2008 3:53 PM

Carolinacowgirl, I live in CA. It all depends on the state you live in. Some states mandate infertility coverage for women. CA is one of them. I know for sure TX is not one of those states because I use to live in TX and it was not a state law.

Blakey - June 27th, 2008 4:09 PM

Hi Carolina!
It really is a total bummer that all our treatments haven't been covered, doesn't seem fair at all! It really upsets me when I think about it, but we were fortunate to have some $$ to be able to do 4 IUI's and 3 IVF's. We do have issues. I have moderate end, and diminished reserve. I do have a fairly good response to stims, and usually have about 2 embryos availabel for transfer, which isn't alot. My DH has a low count/vericoceles. Vericose veins that heat up the little guys, if you will, so the count and motility are low. :( am 41,
Anyway...we are exploring different options right now, and hope to proceed in the future with our ttc journey. It's kind of nice to be on a break right now, but it's always on my mind. Thanks for listening. GL to you, and everyon else!! :O)

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