Anonymous wrote:Congratulations, OP, and thank you to all of the other posters for sharing their experiences and timeline. I have a consult with Dr. Schoolcraft on June 10. Would anyone mind sharing the cost of the three cycle family building plan at CCRM? Their office said they couldn't tell me until after the consult, but it would be useful to have a rough idea ust to have a sense if it's financially viable.

Also, in addition to the three RT tix to Denver and fourth for FET, do you fly out there for your initial workup, or will CCRM let you do your bloodwork, etc locally?

we did the family building option at CCRM colorado for $45000 approx+ cost of travel+hotels+medicines+local tests, ultrasounds, labwork at Shady Grove+ extra charge for CCSing 7 extra embryos as the family building option includes the cost of 10 embryos...all very expensive and we had to pay out of pocket
But I got a discount rate for the family building option, I think they normally charge $55000 + extra charge for CCS of more than 10 embryos

You have to travel to Denver for 1 day for initial workup, they do some tests there and some classes, but I also had to get the shipping kit from CCRM and ship my hormone etc lab work from VA based on the Shipping instructions in their shipping kit

Congratulations, OP, and thank you to all of the other posters for sharing their experiences and timeline. I have a consult with Dr. Schoolcraft on June 10. Would anyone mind sharing the cost of the three cycle family building plan at CCRM? Their office said they couldn't tell me until after the consult, but it would be useful to have a rough idea ust to have a sense if it's financially viable.

Also, in addition to the three RT tix to Denver and fourth for FET, do you fly out there for your initial workup, or will CCRM let you do your bloodwork, etc locally?

Hi OP,

CONGRATS on having your little one!!!! Soooooooooooooooooooooo happy for you!

I just completed my 3rd IVF cycle with CCRM with Dr Schoolcraft,
we did the family planning option which involves doing 3 cycles and then ccs at the end of the 3rd cycle.
I was 41+6 months when I started the first cycle and completed the 3rd cycle in March.

We got pretty decent amount of eggs in each cycle, 29 matured , 17 reached day5 and went for CCS.
But only 6 came back as normal (grade day 5 4AA, day 5 4AB, day 5 5BA, day 5 4BA, day 5 4 BA, and day 6 4AA).

now trying to save money for surrogate . Your story gives me some hope.
May I ask what were the grades of your normal embryos? what do you think are my chances?

@all, I really liked CCRM, I too was out-of-town patient, and yes sometimes it is difficult to make last mins travel plans as the calender given by them will constantly change based on period cycles, besides there can be paperwork related delays etc sometimes. But overall its a great experience, they are expert professionals, my nurse was also great, and as OP said, they explain everything is a nice scientific way so you really start thinking about this more objectively rather than emotionally

Thank you for providing all this information and continuing to update this thread. Congrats on your baby!!

I'm also looking at CCRM, 41 (almost 42), 3 failed IVF cycles, 9 (out of 11) five-day blasts PGS'ed abnormal, unsuccessful fresh txfr of two 5-day untested blasts, "normal" FSH, no stated diagnosis other than age. Also a lawyer to boot, but I need to keep my job to (barely, IMO) afford IVF even though I know the job stress does not help. (Plus I'm the breadwinner.)

We're at a crossroad as after last IVF cycle, my doc said it's time to consider walking away, adoption, etc. I have a consult with Dr. Kondapalli in less than 2 weeks. Also a follow up face-to-face with current doc the same day. Plus competing info from an OB/GYN friend about whether it makes sense to switch docs/clinics at this point. I'm in Southern California and based on SART -- which some fertility docs will say are manipulated -- there's a very successful clinic locally. I'm wondering if it makes sense if switching clinics to go to another local clinic v. the additional hassles of traveling to CCRM. It's an investment of so many resources (time, money, emotion), and I'm willing to do it if it will make a difference.

The info about CCRM is really helpful. Thanks again and congrats on getting to "live birth"!

OP here, so logistically this is how it goes. First you and your partner do the one day work up (this is only scheduled after you do the phone consultation). The one day work up has to be done at a particular point in your cycle so there is a timing issue. The one day work up is really all day and they take a crazy amount of blood - it was 11 vials for me. It wasn't too onerous though compared to a cycle so we made a long weekend out of it and went to Aspen.

Once all the tests are done they send you your protocol. I have DOR so each cycle consisted of one month of priming (testosterone gel and progesterone) and then one month for the actual IVF cycle. I did all my cycles back to back so three cycles would be six months. So I had my one day in June and my first cycle in September (priming in August), so it was really about six weeks from the one day work up to the start of priming.

As for local monitoring, a local clinic does the first two monitoring sessions. The first is the baseline like a day or two after your cycle starts (the ivf cycle not during priming obviously) and then another one about a week in. Based on that second monitoring CCRM will tell you what to do. But every time I went to Denver two days after that. But my cycles all progressed relatively quickly. I spent about a week on average in Denver. The first day they do their own baseline monitoring to confirm where you really are in follicle development. I found almost every time that CCRM did a more thorough job on monitoring than the local clinic. Based on that first ultrasound you keep coming in until the retrieval. Each time my husband would come out to Denver a day and a half before retrieval. That way he would definitely be there to provide a fresh sample. But you could also freeze samples on another visit or get one sent (but we never did that because it is difficult to do). It was important to have him there to take me to the retrieval (because you're under anesthesia) and he usually gave me the trigger shot. On several of my cycles I used a nurse to help me with my shots. I had trouble giving myself the shots for a while, a mental thing, so having the nurse come to the hotel room was really helpful. CCRM can give you the names of nurses who will come to your hotel. Also, you're doing blood work the whole time locally and in Denver. I did mine at Labcorp at home and that part was pretty easy.

As you can gather, this is a tremendous undertaking. All of the unpredictability with the cycles means you are always taking last minute flights to Denver and you never know exactly when you are coming back. Planning anything in your life is really hard. You can do stuff during the priming cycle pretty easily though.

I've been thinking about trying again (since I have no frozen embryos left) but frankly the amount of work it takes is the major stumbling block for me. It takes a lot of energy to go through. You also can't discount the effects of the altitude. I had altitude sickness on one of my visits, and coupled with how run down the cycle made me, I felt just awful. Some cycles I felt ok and managed to do stuff in Denver but the dryness and altitude really messed with me in a way I didn't anticipate.

Just know this will eat your life and is tremendously expensive (just the travel is crazy) but if you're really committed, it could be worth it. And if you can get through it, it makes having an infant seem not so hard

Anonymous wrote:When you say "local monitoring," there are non-CCRM fertility clinics that will cooperate? Wondering how that works since they are all competitors.

After 3 unsuccessful IVF cycles, my RE brought up walking away, adoption, donor eggs. Thinking about second opinion, maybe CCRM.

Yes, many of the local clinics -- CFA, Dominion, SG, etc. -- do local monitoring for CCRM and other out-of-state clinics. They get paid (either by you or by insurance) to do so.

wow, congrats I can't imagine going through all that. I just went through 2 IVFs and when they went badly I decided I was wasting my time! Went to DE at SG and got preggo first try! You are seriously committed (and independently wealthy) I guess! Anyway, good luck with the pregnancy and being a mom!

When you say "local monitoring," there are non-CCRM fertility clinics that will cooperate? Wondering how that works since they are all competitors.

After 3 unsuccessful IVF cycles, my RE brought up walking away, adoption, donor eggs. Thinking about second opinion, maybe CCRM.

I'm not the OP, and I'm not the best person to answer these questions because I didn't decide to go to CCRM, but I'm responding to the above in case the OP is no longer monitoring this thread. When I had my consult with Schoolcraft, he said it would take about 6 months to do 3 freeze-all cycles if everything went according to schedule. I believe he also wanted me to "rest" a few cycles before we started. Then you schedule the FET for (about 6 weeks) later. I would have been doing monitoring locally.

Good luck, PP.

Hi there,

I've never posted on anything like this but my husband and I are considering the CCRM family planning program. We are Canadian and our dollar is in the tank at the moment so the cost for us is quite significant. My question is about timing. Were you monitored the entire time by CCRM or were you monitored locally? (Our local clinic won't monitor us for another clinic - they're too busy). You mentioned in an earlier post that you spent a week in Denver each cycle, and I'm wondering what that entailed. Also, how far apart were your cycles? I'm wondering how long it takes to do three cycles, from time of starting your first stims to implanting your first embryo. Congrats on your success by the way. Nice to hear about a happy outcome!

Anonymous wrote:Are there local clinics that do CCS or is that the magic sauce that CCRM and the other nationally renowned clinics offer? Locally do we just have PGD/PGS? Thanks!

I'd LOVE to know this, too.
So happy for you OP!

Anonymous wrote:Are there local clinics that do CCS or is that the magic sauce that CCRM and the other nationally renowned clinics offer? Locally do we just have PGD/PGS? Thanks!

I thought PGS was the same as CCS...

Are there local clinics that do CCS or is that the magic sauce that CCRM and the other nationally renowned clinics offer? Locally do we just have PGD/PGS? Thanks!

PP here- I love this post! thanks for the update!!! YAY and CONGRATS

Anonymous wrote:OP here - my daughter is five weeks old and is sleeping peacefully now. It took four years to get here but it was definitely worth it.

Yay!!!