ART - how much does it all cost

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I am likely getting ahead of myself, but since DH and I are on an insurance plan that doesn't cover any ART (at least until next winter when we can switch), I'm wondering if anyone can give me some ballpark figures on various procedures? I've heard around 1$12-15,000 for IVF. How much is IUI? Plus all of the drugs, tests and so on?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Anonymous]

If you talk to one of the financial counselors at a fertility center (e.g. Shady Grove), they can give you a write-up that details each procedure and how much they cost. They gave me one before each of my cycles, but it was tailored to my insurance plan, so I only saw the "after insurance" cost which was 50% of what the insurance company said the procedure should cost (i.e., not 50% of the retail cost). Anyway, because of this I cannot estimate what the non-insurance cost is, but I'd guess around $8 to $10K for an IVF cycle. Hopefully someone else on the board knows. The meds are EXPENSIVE -- i.e., probably equal to 60% to 100% of the medical costs. So, I'd guess that a complete cycle including meds runs between $12 to $20k. This is only a guess! It definitely pays to shop around for insurance if you have the ability. When comparing insurance, look at not only the medical payments for ART, but the prescription coverage for ART as well. In addition if you need special procedures such as ICSI or PGD that will drive the cost up even more.

[Anonymous]

Also, if you are somewhere like Shady Grove look at their shared risk programs. For instance we paid 30K to get up to 6 tries with a donor embryo including meds. It might sound like a lot (and of course I got pg on the first try) but each individual cycle was about 15K. They have a similar program for IVF. Be careful about wasting your money on multiple IUI attempts because the success rate is lower and while it doesn't cost as much the emotional energy and financial costs add up.

[Anonymous]

Luckily for me all my meds are covered with my insurance, so generally I'm paying $35 for each type of medicine. It does add up though when doing Follistim. Lupron, HCG shot, progesterone, etc. Unluckily for me IVF or IUI is not covered AT ALL, so that is money we had to come up with. We did this by both maxing out our FSA's ($5,000 each) in December and then in February it was all gone. IVF was $9,000, ICSI was $3,400 and Assisted Hatching was another $2,000. In addition to this each visit is not just a co-pay of $15, I just got bills from my insurance that they only covered a portion of each sonogram and such. And then we didn't achieve success

We also tried IUI which was $1,000 plus the meds and the visits for bloodwork and sonograms and no success there either! Right now I just started accupuncture and am hoping that this will help our chances. We found a way to get some additional money (selling a car) and will try IVF one last time. I'm still hesitant but really would like another baby. (Have one naturally 4 years ago) From what I've read the acupuncture will help the success rate and I'm trying to really eat better and not have any caffeine or alcohol or other things the acupuncturist told me to stay away from. It is very hard and I hate all this waiting....

[Anonymous]

I was 100% out of pocket. I did shared risk with Shady Grove, IVF with PGD and ICSI, $23,000 for 6 tries. Meds would vary between $3000-$5000 per cycle depending on protocol. It took us 3 cycles to be successful. When I tried to do the math, I figured that each cycle individually would have cost about $11,000 to $12,000 without the meds.

I had additional PGD costs that were $5,000 per cycle.

I would recommend having you and your husband MAX out your flex spending account, that definitely helped with the cost of the drugs. Also, since we itemzied our deductions, we were able to take the costs of the IVF (plus mileage for appointments) off of 2007 taxes.

[Anonymous]

I had no insurance coverage. My cycles cost about $5,000 for IUI (which included all the meds, sonos and blood work, and the IUI itself). We had one successful pregnancy with the IUI the first time around but trying for no. 2 has proved more challenging. We are about to start IFV, which my doctor said will cost $12,000 for the first cycle (which will include all meds, sonos, blood work, the egg retrieval and the first round of transfer). Its ridiculously expensive. Good luck with your efforts!