Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a doctor who will give you a minimal stim cycle. You can spend $15k on meds per cycle and not have much to show for it.

I don't know about packages, but CNY is cheap.

What does a minimal stim cycle mean? Low doses of the meds?

What is CNY? Sorry for my lack of knowledge

https://www.cnyfertility.com/

Yes, it is low doses. There is a school of thought that women with low follicle count will not produce more eggs even drowning in extra medication. And some people think it fries egg quality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: not in DC but considering moving to MD or changing employment. The situation is complicated: I need so many frozen embryos for a surrogate.

How much would be a package IVF and medication, if not covered insurance? It's estimated I would get the needed number of embryos after 4-5 cycles. Yes, I did IVF before (successfully but long time ago in a different country when I was much healthier and could carry myself)

It's been awhile but I thought SGF 1 cycle was like $11,000 and a couple thousand for meds. We didn't have insurance coverage for any of it. I am the post that went with the "shared risk" package though, so I could be misremembering.

Which Shady Grove did you go to, how old are you, what is the health/ovarian reserve situation? Do they offer it to everyone, or you have to be a member of an insurance group that participates in such plan? The problem with surrogate is that they would get 1-2 eggs from me each cycle, and unlikely all of the embryos would be viable. They would test them first. I will be super lucky (less than 5% chance) that a viable embryo is obtained from 1 cycle

It's not linked to insurance, it's for OOP.

You have to qualify based on age, stats etc - SGF has to view it as financially beneficial for them (i.e., they think you will get pregnant well before needing the 6 covered rounds)

This is SGF’s current costs and plans for IVF without insurance coverage. The medication costs are not included. The meds $ depends on your cycle and what protocol the Dr puts you on. For reference I am 38 and my first cycle (before I realized my medication was covered by insurance) was quoted at Encompass for $4900 for 1 cycle: https://www.shadygrovefertility.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/IVF-and-Co-IVF-Financial-Program-Guide-July-2022.pdf

Sounds like you might need the shared risk program but you’d have to contact SGF to see if you qualify. Someone previously posted more info on this here: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/752600.page

I work in DC and live in MD. I decided to drop my work insurance and get insurance through MD exchange. The insurance was around $460 a month (which is increasing to around $515 next year). I think there were cheaper plans but I went with the one with the lowest deductible. I did 3 egg retrievals, 3 PGT-A testing, 2 frozen embryo storage fees and 1 FET. Total costs so far has been $16,500 (including all medication) + $5,520 insurance (for the year 2022) + $120 per month embryo storage fee. Note that PGT-A testing is not covered by insurance. If I had not done PGT-A testing, I could have saved $7,550.

It is currently MD open enrollment if you are looking to switch over. I was told that the insurance covers 3 attempts per live birth and that attempts are counted at FET. I’m not sure how it would work with a surrogate. Insurance also covers most of the medication costs and you mostly pay the copay ($50-$100 per medication).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: not in DC but considering moving to MD or changing employment. The situation is complicated: I need so many frozen embryos for a surrogate.

How much would be a package IVF and medication, if not covered insurance? It's estimated I would get the needed number of embryos after 4-5 cycles. Yes, I did IVF before (successfully but long time ago in a different country when I was much healthier and could carry myself)

It's been awhile but I thought SGF 1 cycle was like $11,000 and a couple thousand for meds. We didn't have insurance coverage for any of it. I am the post that went with the "shared risk" package though, so I could be misremembering.

Which Shady Grove did you go to, how old are you, what is the health/ovarian reserve situation? Do they offer it to everyone, or you have to be a member of an insurance group that participates in such plan? The problem with surrogate is that they would get 1-2 eggs from me each cycle, and unlikely all of the embryos would be viable. They would test them first. I will be super lucky (less than 5% chance) that a viable embryo is obtained from 1 cycle

Anonymous wrote:OP here: not in DC but considering moving to MD or changing employment. The situation is complicated: I need so many frozen embryos for a surrogate.

How much would be a package IVF and medication, if not covered insurance? It's estimated I would get the needed number of embryos after 4-5 cycles. Yes, I did IVF before (successfully but long time ago in a different country when I was much healthier and could carry myself)

It's been awhile but I thought SGF 1 cycle was like $11,000 and a couple thousand for meds. We didn't have insurance coverage for any of it. I am the post that went with the "shared risk" package though, so I could be misremembering.

Anonymous wrote:Shady Grove has multi-cycle packages but at least when we were there a few years ago it did not allow you to bank embryos. You had to use everything from one cycle and only got to move on if it didn’t work.

+1 you can't bank, at least for the standard package. The goal was one live birth (not embryos for a future pregnancy)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a doctor who will give you a minimal stim cycle. You can spend $15k on meds per cycle and not have much to show for it.

I don't know about packages, but CNY is cheap.

What does a minimal stim cycle mean? Low doses of the meds?

What is CNY? Sorry for my lack of knowledge

OP here: not in DC but considering moving to MD or changing employment. The situation is complicated: I need so many frozen embryos for a surrogate.

How much would be a package IVF and medication, if not covered insurance? It's estimated I would get the needed number of embryos after 4-5 cycles. Yes, I did IVF before (successfully but long time ago in a different country when I was much healthier and could carry myself)

Anonymous wrote:Find a doctor who will give you a minimal stim cycle. You can spend $15k on meds per cycle and not have much to show for it.

I don't know about packages, but CNY is cheap.

What does a minimal stim cycle mean? Low doses of the meds?

Shady Grove has multi-cycle packages but at least when we were there a few years ago it did not allow you to bank embryos. You had to use everything from one cycle and only got to move on if it didn’t work.

5 cycles? Have you done IVF before? That's a lot, regardless of price.

Find a doctor who will give you a minimal stim cycle. You can spend $15k on meds per cycle and not have much to show for it.

I don't know about packages, but CNY is cheap.

Do you live in MD
Buy on the exchange. Find out if a cycle is counted at transfer or retrieval

I would change jobs and get coverage in this situation.

Looking to freeze embryos, and will likely require at least 5 IVF cycles due to low ovarian reserve. Does anyone have this experience? I wonder if there are clinics that offer IVF cycles packages with a discount for several cycles. Thanks in advance!