Elective embryo freezing and diagnostic testing

[Anonymous]

We are pursuing elective embryo freezing (no history of infertility) and are very confused after our initial consultation with SGF. The “pre-screening” costs anticipated are upwards of $5k, but when I look up each of the various line items (I.e. HSG, endometrial biopsy), they all appear to be procedures that would only make sense to do if we were already struggling with infertility. Basically, why would we need diagnostic testing if there is no evidence of a problem?

Apologies if this doesn’t belong on here; not sure what section of the forum this goes in because we are neither TTC or experiencing infertility, just trying to plan ahead.

[Anonymous]

I think this is ultimately a question for SGF. A lot of clinics just have an initial battery of tests they run before providing any treatment. I think the HSG is fairly standard at SGF, the endometrial biopsy does not sound standard from my recollection.

[Anonymous]

You don't know if you're infertile or not. If you have issues it may affect how they inseminate your eggs for sperm diagnostics and egg. They also need to see how many follicles you are producing per cycle. They need that for your stimulation medication.

I just went through IVF and its draining. This is not a walk in the park as you are discovering so if there is any chance you would try naturally I would consider that first. You seem very naive about the logistics of all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are pursuing elective embryo freezing (no history of infertility) and are very confused after our initial consultation with SGF. The “pre-screening” costs anticipated are upwards of $5k, but when I look up each of the various line items (I.e. HSG, endometrial biopsy), they all appear to be procedures that would only make sense to do if we were already struggling with infertility. Basically, why would we need diagnostic testing if there is no evidence of a problem?

Apologies if this doesn’t belong on here; not sure what section of the forum this goes in because we are neither TTC or experiencing infertility, just trying to plan ahead.

It doesn't make sense to do HSG or endometrial biopsy now if you are just freezing embryos - those are only things you may need before the frozen embryo transfer. HSG is standard but the endometrial biopsy isn't. I didn't have one (worked with a CCRM clinic on the west coast.) I would definitely push back against doing them now if you have no intentions on transferring any embryos in the near future.

[Anonymous]

How have women had babies for thousands of years?

[Anonymous]

I never had an endometrial biopsy at SGF. That isn’t standard. What was the reasoning for this procedure?

[Anonymous]

Ask your doctor. You may not need everything or they might provide a rationale.

[Anonymous]

Just go back to the clinic and ask them to remove that portion of the treatment plan and billing.

You’ll require a lot of the up front testing anybody would have for full IVF, but are correct that those procedures are not required if you will not be doing a transfer. I did IVF and didn’t even do a biopsy. That said, they may have the procedures listed as presume you will eventually do a transfer with them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just go back to the clinic and ask them to remove that portion of the treatment plan and billing.

You’ll require a lot of the up front testing anybody would have for full IVF, but are correct that those procedures are not required if you will not be doing a transfer. I did IVF and didn’t even do a biopsy. That said, they may have the procedures listed as presume you will eventually do a transfer with them?

OP here. Yes, it turns out that the emails were just unclear and those are all tests that I can likely expect to do at some point down the road if we do a transfer, but not needed for this portion of things. Thanks to everyone who responded.