IVF as a money maker?

[Anonymous]

Has anyoone felt that their RE tried to hurry them into IVF? I am currently at Shady Grove and feel like my doctor is pushing IVF. I know that IVF can be a big money maker for these practices and was wondering if anyone has experienced this? Perhaps I am being paranoid about the money motivation but it makes me wonder if the RE is really thinking of my interest. Don't they have a motivation for me to do IVF?

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure the motivation is immediate money, but rather that IVF certainly has higher success rates & success rates are what drives the business....however, success is also what ultimately the patient too. To be honest, I did a year of IUI's convinced that I did not need the invasiveness of IVF. I was successful on my first IVF & wish I had decided to go that route sooner....

I do think, however, that the RE's aren't always considerate of all that goes into patients' decision-making about choosing IVF (emotional toll, hormone shots, financial toll, the scariness of undergoing essentially outpatient surgery, etc) & just look at success rates...

Just my .02

[Anonymous]

I think THEY think that they're just trying to get you pregnant the fastest way possible, for YOUR benefit. But I agree that they make WAY more money from IVF than other options, so I'm sure that plays a role. I think you just need to be strong if you really feel like you're not ready. You might also consider getting a second opinion, or three.

[Anonymous]

You can always get a second opinion. It depends upon what type of infertility you are facing. I believe recent studies have shown that IVF has better results for couples with unexplained infertility.
Other Things to consider:
How many IUI's would it take to equal the cost of one IVF (note that IUI with injectibles are pretty expensive due to the cost of drugs)?
What is your age and how many children do you want to have? An extra year or two of treatment now may put you over the curve down the road when you want to have more children. We were TTC for 3 years (including one year of IVF) before we finally got pregnant the first time around. So while I started TTC in my early 30's, I was in my late 30's by the time we were TTC #2 and in my 40's for #3.

[Anonymous]

I think that pushing you to do IVF right away doesn't necessarily make more money for the RE. In my case, we spent about $4K on 3 IUIs that didn't work and now we have to do IVF anyway -- so that was an additional $4K for the RE on top of what he'll make from IVF. I'm usually pretty skeptical of MD's motives, but I think the case of IVF their desire to have good stats (and therefore not take patients who have a very low chance of success) balances out their desire to make money by treating those patients.

[Anonymous]

I doubt they look at IVF as a quite money maker either. But they probably do look at is as the best quite way to get certain people pregnant as quickly has possible.
IUIs with injectible meds cost upwards of $4000/cycle and have somewhere between a 15-20% chance of working per cycle under the best of circumstances (and with some women consideralby less). IVF costs $9000 plus meds and has stats of up to 60% (under age 35). It doesn't take too many IUIs to quickly bypass the cost of IVF.
I have unxplained fertility and found that Shady Grove was quite open to letting me chose my course of treatment. They were willing to let me do IVF right away if my goal was to get pregnant as quickly as possible. However, they weren't against trying 3-6 IUI cycles first.

[Anonymous]

I chose IVF over IUI because of my age (then 37) and because I frankly didn't want to take a bunch of Clomid. I also didn't want the risk of multiples that IUI entails. (With IVF there's much more control over that.) We had decided to pursue IVF before our initial consultation. Our consult just reinforced our view that IVF was the better option because, at my age, our clinic's success rates with IVF were far superior to those with IUI. I'm sure some unscrupulous practices push IVF, but that's certainly not true of all or even most. When age is a significant factor, and if you don't want to subject yourself to the risks of IUI, why not go straight to IVF? It was the best decision we could have made.

[Anonymous]

when I first visited SG I remember being in the waiting room with my husband talking about not letting the doctor convince me to go first with IUSs or other treatments, but to go straight to IVF. Dr. Widra calmy convinced me to try at least 3 rounds of IUIs and I accepted (just thinking I will do one and then complain and said go to IVF). I was scared of the whole process so I though one round of IUI will help me experiment the injections and the whole monitoring of the cycle to prepare myself for the IVF I was going to demand (I had a plan!). So I went for the IUI, I was totally sure it ws not going to work, so I did not even think about it and for the first time I did not obsess about every symptom on the 2 WW because I knew the prometrium will be playing tricks, so I relaxed and enjoyed my last month of freedom and guess what? It worked and now I'm 35 weeks pregnant. So it was bad business for SG I guess. So answering your question: No, I don't think that's their approach, I think that depending on your problem they may rush you for an IVF but if you did not have any major issues (like myself) they actually push for IUIs.

[Anonymous]

No, I felt like the option to do IUI vs. IVF was completely up to us - no pressure either way, Dr. Widra just laid out the pluses and minuses, answered our questions, and let us decide.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Greenhouse strongly encouraged us to do the three IUIs that were covered by our insurance before even considering IVF. When they didn't work, he offered to fight with our insurance to get them to cover additional tries or for us to consider IVF-- it was very much in our hands. We decided to go for IVF, because even though we probably could have gotten them covered, it still cost us quite a bit out of pocket.
IVF worked on the first try for us.

[Anonymous]

shady grove is big time IVF! My Dr. too pushed me into IVF after 3 failed IUI's. I would go with your gut! I was just impatient so I went with IVF.