What do people do with extra meds?

[Anonymous]

I am just now prepping for our first (and likely only) IVF cycle. I am realizing stimulation may last anywhere from 8 to 14 days. My doc ordered Gonil and Menopur for 11 days, but what happens to those meds if my cycle is fewer days? Do pharmacies take meds back? Can you order less and if the stim cycle looks like it will last longer, then order more? Otherwise it seems like such a waste. We are self pay, so any extra med we don't need is hundreds of dollars.

[Anonymous]

I don't know of any pharmacies where you can return the medicine. I had an extra vial of menopur, plus some ganirelix, and I returned both to my nurse (SG). That was back in 2015. Pretty sure at that point they were handing extras out to patients who needed it.

[Anonymous]

You can ask to order less at the start, and pick it up at a local pharmacy if you need more. Make sure they have your meds in stock though. I don't know if the pharmacy will take back meds. I gave the extras away to the clinic.

[Anonymous]

We gave ours to a friend who was going through IVF.

[Anonymous]

Pharmacies can't take them back once you take possession, so no use trying. The best thing to do is to only take a little at the beginning and then when you're sure you need more, get more. The pharmacies that ship will ship overnight.

I gave some to a friend and had to throw some away that were partly used or expired. REs will sometime take extra, too. But unless your friend will pay you for them, you're still out the $.

[Anonymous]

I always give mine away to someome that needs. My insurance covered all meds for my attempts for DC2 (we were 100% OOP for DD1) so I always made sure to find someone that was paying and was short for a cycle.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind some meds expire in 30 days - I believe both ovidrel and follistim expire in a month so aren't good to use the following month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind some meds expire in 30 days - I believe both ovidrel and follistim expire in a month so aren't good to use the following month.

Follistim and gonal are usually good for 6 months+, unopened. I know this for a fact.