Egg freezing - second time trying- at loss trying to find best course of action

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am going into my second cycle of egg freezing and at loss on which clinic to choose. For the first cycle, I went to Washington Fertility. I only retrieved 4 eggs. I do not know why because my stats such as AMH levels were fine. I would need a couple more rounds to increase my chances, but the first round cost me almost 8000 USD in total. Unfortunately, my insurance does not cover infertility. I cannot afford 2 more cycles - likely I can only do one more cycle.

One saving grace is that my work is flexible enough for me to be out of town, so to lower the cost, I tentatively decided to go to CNY Fertility in New York. However, when adding up the cost of local monitoring, hotel and travel to NY and the added stress of complicating the process, I am starting to wonder if it would be a better idea to use a clinic in the DC area instead once more. I also considered staying in New York for 2 weeks, but the stress of navigating an unfamiliar city and packing etc all seemed to add up.

I am now trying to find the clinic that offers the cheapest option and has good reviews, but have yet to find one.

Could anyone recommend a clinic that were relatively affordable, or comment on this situation in general and give advice on what would be a good course of action?

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked at Shady Grove, Dominion or CCRM? Not understanding how the entire egg retrieval process could have been only $8k, including drugs but that alone could be how you ended up with only four eggs.

[Anonymous]

Also, yes, unless you have a well defined issue that a specialist who is not local excels in I do not think traveling is going be cheaper or yield better outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Also looking at Washington Fertility's site you would have paid closer to $9k for their monitoring and surgery, in addition to $4k - $6k in drug costs. So you probably paid closer to $15k?? Is that right? Are you asking is there a base services of $9k for egg retrieval in the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I paid 5900 USD for the egg freezing package, approx 800 for the anesthesia and related costs for transportation, and approx. 4000 for drugs.
I had done preliminary tests a couple months ago separately in another city so I did not need to do them with Washington Fertility.
I would never pay 15000 USD for one cycle of egg freezing.

CNY's egg freezing package is 2999 USD.
If I were to stay in DC to do remote monitoring, I would like to find a place that does remote monitoring at the lowest cost.
I inquired with CCRM but they do not provide remote monitoring.
I am now trying to find out the cost of Shady Grove's remote monitoring process (if they do offer it).
One of my problems is I have yet to find a place in DC that offers remote monitoring for CNY Fertility at all.

Alternatively I would like to find a clinic in DC that provides a less costly egg freezing package.

Thank you and let me know any thoughts.

[Anonymous]

The Washington Fertility's egg freezing package was a limited time only offering at that time, which was a couple months ago. (FYI)

[Anonymous]

Also, I inquired with Dominion Fertility, but they do not offer remote monitoring for CNY. They do offer them for other clinics but discontinued this service for CNY (not sure why).

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, there was a poster on this thread who did local monitoring at Annandale OBGYN while at CNY: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1172648.page

I'm not the same poster but also did NYC/outside monitoring; after a lot of research, I went to Annandale OBGYN (they hvae multiple offices) because a lot of CNY patients go there, and they became so popular and well-versed in how to do the outside monitoring that they hired more technicians just to support this. It means early appts (like 7AM), but they can draw your blood on-site and send to Labcorp quickly to get the same-day results your clinic will require. Then closer to the retrieval, you'll go up to NYC for daily monitoring.

Also FWIW, I was 37 with bad DOR when I started for 2nd kid. Low AMH, high FSH (think it was 16 when I got tested at 37? eventually got it down to 12 but they say it's as good as your highest #), never conceived in 4 years of unprotected sex (our 1st kid was IUI baby), and did 5 IVF retrievals at 3 different clinics without success. Ended up conceiving naturally at 39 - so, I fully acknowledge these stories are rare and i personally hated hearing them bc realistically it doesn't happen for everyone and gives false hope. I guess my point is, unfortunately none of us hvae control over the final outcome - just know your limits and be open to anything and everything. I had pretty much given up and was trying to help my husband process the reality of having "only" one (which is a huge blessing in itself, I know), and originally said no to the wham-bam before I had to rush out of town lol. It was my husband who pressed, I ran out the door to catch my train, walked 30K steps in NYC the next 3 days and ate like total shit (was amaaaze) and that was my son.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP - I did one cycle of egg retrieval at Shady Grove last summer - can’t comment on cost as my work benefits / insurance picked up most of the bill. But I will say there shouldn’t really be a huge surprise in the number of eggs they’re able to retrieve, from my experience. Each monitoring appt included a transvaginal US where they count and measure the follicles to see which ones are getting to the right size, and then they trigger you once as many of those follicles get into ideal size range. So I knew going into retrieval an expected range of eggs we’d get - in fact we ended up getting more than expected, which I think helps with expectations. Did your clinic not do this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP - I did one cycle of egg retrieval at Shady Grove last summer - can’t comment on cost as my work benefits / insurance picked up most of the bill. But I will say there shouldn’t really be a huge surprise in the number of eggs they’re able to retrieve, from my experience. Each monitoring appt included a transvaginal US where they count and measure the follicles to see which ones are getting to the right size, and then they trigger you once as many of those follicles get into ideal size range. So I knew going into retrieval an expected range of eggs we’d get - in fact we ended up getting more than expected, which I think helps with expectations. Did your clinic not do this?

Washington Fertility did this. Going in, at first they saw about 12 follicles. The day before going in to the surgery, they saw 8 follicles. They retrieved 4 eggs. They said that there were several follicles that were empty. I think it's called the empty follicle syndrome. The incidence of this syndrome has been estimated at 0.6–7.0%. I feel pretty down about this, not sure why my body like this...

I have been taking supplements (Ovarian Bloom+ and Peak Prenatal from Molecular Fertility) and trying to sleep earlier because I was often sleeping after midnight. If I get 4 eggs again, I have 8 eggs in total so that's a nightmare if I can't afford any more cycles.

Glad to hear Shady Grove does remote monitoring, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP, there was a poster on this thread who did local monitoring at Annandale OBGYN while at CNY: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1172648.page

I'm not the same poster but also did NYC/outside monitoring; after a lot of research, I went to Annandale OBGYN (they hvae multiple offices) because a lot of CNY patients go there, and they became so popular and well-versed in how to do the outside monitoring that they hired more technicians just to support this. It means early appts (like 7AM), but they can draw your blood on-site and send to Labcorp quickly to get the same-day results your clinic will require. Then closer to the retrieval, you'll go up to NYC for daily monitoring.

Also FWIW, I was 37 with bad DOR when I started for 2nd kid. Low AMH, high FSH (think it was 16 when I got tested at 37? eventually got it down to 12 but they say it's as good as your highest #), never conceived in 4 years of unprotected sex (our 1st kid was IUI baby), and did 5 IVF retrievals at 3 different clinics without success. Ended up conceiving naturally at 39 - so, I fully acknowledge these stories are rare and i personally hated hearing them bc realistically it doesn't happen for everyone and gives false hope. I guess my point is, unfortunately none of us hvae control over the final outcome - just know your limits and be open to anything and everything. I had pretty much given up and was trying to help my husband process the reality of having "only" one (which is a huge blessing in itself, I know), and originally said no to the wham-bam before I had to rush out of town lol. It was my husband who pressed, I ran out the door to catch my train, walked 30K steps in NYC the next 3 days and ate like total shit (was amaaaze) and that was my son.

Thank you for this information!! I will contact Annandale OBGYN. This is very helpful!!

[Anonymous]

Honestly it’s more likely that it wasn’t the most appropriate course of drugs that you only ended up with 4. I think you’re looking at this whole process wrong - one high quality cycle would have been better than the 2 cheapest cycles that you’re aiming for. I’d cut to the chase and go to CCRM in Denver. You can use CFA for monitoring. If you really don’t want to travel then just use CFA for everything. I’ve done it both ways and each was fine.

[Anonymous]

How old are you and why are you freezing your eggs?

I have been through the infertility wringer and I ended up using donor eggs. If I could give my younger self some advice it would be to save my money and go right to donor eggs.

I have three amazing kids. One round of donor egg retrieval. Second and third kid from frozen embryos. Donor was 21 and her eggs were fantastic. I am so thankful for her.

[Anonymous]

I was googling clinics in Annandale, and found Annandale Fertility. They have an egg freezing package at 4999 USD with anesthesia included. I can drive there from where I live in about 30 minutes.
https://www.annandalefertility.com/pricing

Does anyone have any experience with Annandale Fertility?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are you and why are you freezing your eggs?

I have been through the infertility wringer and I ended up using donor eggs. If I could give my younger self some advice it would be to save my money and go right to donor eggs.

I have three amazing kids. One round of donor egg retrieval. Second and third kid from frozen embryos. Donor was 21 and her eggs were fantastic. I am so thankful for her.

I'm 35 now.
If using donor eggs, will the child have my DNA? I did read that the womb influences the baby's development. There are so many options out there it's confusing..