Advice on cost of IUI

[Anonymous]

I was wondering what other women have paid for IUI treatments. Dominion Fertility quoted me a price of over $2300 (my insurance does not cover the procedure) per treatment. According to the paperwork, this price includes "all ovarian monitoring with sonograms, blood estrogen and progesterone measurements, sperm preparation and washing and a single timed intrauterine insemination." I went to Duke Fertility in Durham, NC, for a second opinion and the doctor there concurred with the diagnosis and treatment but was shocked by the price. He thought that the procedure should be in the hundreds of dollars, not the thousands. It's possible that Duke Fertility's IUI treatment is not quite as extensive (he didn't provide me with a specific list of what it entailed) or that fertility procedures just cost a lot less in NC. But before I spent a lot of money with Dominion, I wanted to make sure that the pricing was competitive with other clinics in the area. Any comments or advice would be highly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

IUI w/ injectibles at Columbia Fertility was right around there, too.

[Anonymous]

The price differences could be that each is quoting you different procedures. At Columbia a natural IUI (with no meds, blood work, sperm prep, or monitoring, etc) is a couple hundred dollars. Obviously sperm prep and monitoring would increase this cost.

In fact, a Clomid IUI cycle which includes blood work, monitoring and sperm prep is about $1,000 (with meds extra but since clomid is inexpensive is only about $50 more). Now a IUI cycle with injectibles (and all the other stuff too) at Columbia is about $2300 (again without cost of meds, which for injectibles can be a couple thousand - though sometimes insurance may pay for that).

[Anonymous]

One thing to remember is that prices in the DC area reflect that you are in the DC area. I would bet that you could compare prices for lots of different medical procedures in the DC area with those in Durham and find a similar price difference. Being in a "big city" area comes with "big city" prices. My IUI and IVF prices at Columbia Fertility are comparable with other providers here, but when I compare them with the top IUI and IVF providers in my home town in Louisiana, the difference makes me want to vomit. But then again, I get the same reaction when I compare food and house prices. Like I said before, you are paying "big city" prices. I know, it stinks!

[Anonymous]

I am familiar only with SG's prices for IUI but it sounds like they are comparable to what you posted for Dominion, though I'm not sure of your protocol.(?) They are "global fees" that include the entire cycle from day 3 u/s and b/w through beta test at 15dpo but do not include the cost of the meds.

They are priced on a sliding scale, so subsequent cycles are slightly less expensive, and the pricing depends on the protocol:
Clomid-only is $1200 first cycle, $1000 second cycle, and $800 third and subsequent cycles.
Clomid+injectible FSH starts at $1600 for the first cycle, and I think Injectibles-only is $2200 for the first cycle (I'm not positive about that, though) and those fees also decrease on subsequent cycles.

As PPs have pointed out, the sperm washing and the insemination procedure itself are not that expensive. It is the monitoring that drives up the cost. If your cycle is cancelled for any reason prior to insemination, you are responsible for the itemized cost of procedures up to that point - I was cancelled for overstimming, which was discovered at my 2nd ultrasound, and the costs incurred up to that point were over $800 for two u/s and accompanying b/w. So that shows you where most of the cost is incurred during a medicated/monitored IUI cycle. But after overstimming, I would never take ovarian stimulation drugs without being monitored. Also important to note is that a cancelled cycle does not count as a cycle for purposes of moving down the sliding fee scale at SG.