WWIFD? out of state IVF?

katekat8721

Hi ladies,

My RE has about.a 55% success rate for IVF in my age bracket and circumstances. While looking on SART I saw a clinic out of state has an 78% success rate.

This seems like such a big difference. Is it worth traveling out of state to chase high success rates? I feel like I'd be more comfortable staying local, but have a better chance going further away...

Thanks for your thoughts!

hmz819

How far out of state?  Could you do local monitoring?  If it's a drivable distance I don't think it would be that difficult.  If you would have to fly it could get expensive (last minute flights) and flying can be stressful if there are delays etc. 

If it were me I would maybe get a second opinion at the new clinic and see what they say.  78% does sound pretty high though.  Are they doing the same number of cases etc?

amcastord

I'm doing the same thing. My local success rate is 41% and out of state is 72%. My thought is, if the travel is reasonable to you (whatever that may mean), then go for it. Go big or go home, right? Those are significant increases in chances, to me, I think it's worth it. Our travel is day trips if necessary traveling from WV to NC. If you can make it work, I say do it. Then, there won't be "what ifs", that's my thought process anyway...

Keep us posted on what you decide... GL

Malvagia

Is this 78% chance of pregnancy and not live birth?  Is this place in NJ or PA?

 

The clinic I will be going to (an hour away) is in state but they do their egg retrival and transfer out of state (2 hours away)

hmz819

amcastord said:

I'm doing the same thing. My local success rate is 41% and out of state is 72%. My thought is, if the travel is reasonable to you (whatever that may mean), then go for it. Go big or go home, right? Those are significant increases in chances, to me, I think it's worth it. Our travel is day trips if necessary traveling from WV to NC. If you can make it work, I say do it. Then, there won't be "what ifs", that's my thought process anyway...

Keep us posted on what you decide... GL

What clinic in NC are you using?  Feel free to PM me if you want.

katekat8721

Thanks girl, sounds like we're in the same boat!

I'll have to check into how reasonable travel is, it'll probably mean flying. Boo!

katekat8721

Malvagia said:

Is this 78% chance of pregnancy and not live birth?  Is this place in NJ or PA?

 

The clinic I will be going to (an hour away) is in state but they do their egg retrival and transfer out of state (2 hours away)

Live birth. Crazy huh? No it's in WA.

katekat8721

hmz819 said:

How far out of state?  Could you do local monitoring?  If it's a drivable distance I don't think it would be that difficult.  If you would have to fly it could get expensive (last minute flights) and flying can be stressful if there are delays etc. 

If it were me I would maybe get a second opinion at the new clinic and see what they say.  78% does sound pretty high though.  Are they doing the same number of cases etc?

I'm not sure if I can do local monitoring. I wouldn't imagine my clinic would like that lol. I'm trying to get a consult with my local place to see what the schedule would be like so I know what to expect. I guess I didn't know if I was being unreasonable thinking most people just went to their local clinics lol

katekat8721

hmz819 said:

Are they doing the same number of cases etc?

Per latest data:

Local clinic: 69 cases, 49.3% success rate (oops was off the first time sorry)

Out of state: 38 cases, 78.9% success rate.

Would involve flying, unless willing to drive 14 hours one way...

amcastord

katekat8721 said:

Are they doing the same number of cases etc?

Per latest data: Local clinic: 69 cases, 49.3% success rate (oops was off the first time sorry) Out of state: 38 cases, 78.9% success rate. Would involve flying, unless willing to drive 14 hours one way...

WOW! 14 hours one way or flying? That would be excessive for me and we could never do that. But, if you can, then I'd definitely talk to both locations and consider. In the end, you have to be ok with what you did. If you think you'll always thing "what if we had just gone the distance", then that's a huge point to consider. Our trip is only about 3.5-4 hours...so, definitely doable in a day. GL with your decision.

katekat8721

Thank you guys! Yeah the distance would be very hard! That's a big part that's turning me off. Well, that and just finding out hubby would prefer to stay local. He really likes the RE.

I just scheduled our first ever IVF consultation with our local clinic, so we'll be picking their brains in a few weeks! I'm nervous and excited all at the same time!

LundleBean

I would IVF out of state if it were cheaper to do so, but not based on the percentage.
The percentages do not necessarily reflect your specific circumstances.  Also, some places refuse service to people if they believe they will harm their percentages.  I did not put much thought into the percentage as long as it was above the current average.

PurpleIris30

ThoseThreeWords said:

That high of a rate makes me wonder if they are just very selective in who they take on as a patient.  Do they reject more difficult cases to keep their numbers so high?

I'm considering going to another state for a top RE if things go poorly (praying so hard that it won't get to that point).  I have friends I can live with for a month or so in the other state, though.
GL!

siggie warning

OP, if you are talking about the clinic in Spokane, WA, their stats are very much skewed by the patients they accept, so be very, very wary.  For instance, take a look at the number of patients they cycle with DOR -- hardly any.  Compare that to the other regional clinics that have excellent success rates with high number of DOR patients -- CCRM, ORM, and SRM, for instance (they all have lots of out of state and international patients).  SART statistics can be very deceiving unless you really pay close attention to the numbers.  Please do NOT make decisions about which clinic to visit based solely on success rates or live birth rates; you have to look at everything.  Also pay attention to their historical numbers -- not just the last year or two -- and you will see marked differences.  

We traveled to an out of state clinic for higher success rates.

katekat8721

PurpleIris30 said:

ThoseThreeWords said:

That high of a rate makes me wonder if they are just very selective in who they take on as a patient.  Do they reject more difficult cases to keep their numbers so high?

I'm considering going to another state for a top RE if things go poorly (praying so hard that it won't get to that point).  I have friends I can live with for a month or so in the other state, though.
GL!

siggie warning

OP, if you are talking about the clinic in Spokane, WA, their stats are very much skewed by the patients they accept, so be very, very wary.  For instance, take a look at the number of patients they cycle with DOR -- hardly any.  Compare that to the other regional clinics that have excellent success rates with high number of DOR patients -- CCRM, ORM, and SRM, for instance (they all have lots of out of state and international patients).  SART statistics can be very deceiving unless you really pay close attention to the numbers.  Please do NOT make decisions about which clinic to visit based solely on success rates or live birth rates; you have to look at everything.  Also pay attention to their historical numbers -- not just the last year or two -- and you will see marked differences.  

We traveled to an out of state clinic for higher success rates.

Iris that was the clinic! Thank you for telling me that! You are right, the numbers do look skewed to obtain favorable outcomes. There is so much to learn from this process, it can be overwhelming! Thanks for your insight!

LittleLady77

LundleBean said:

I would IVF out of state if it were cheaper to do so, but not based on the percentage.
The percentages do not necessarily reflect your specific circumstances.  Also, some places refuse service to people if they believe they will harm their percentages.  I did not put much thought into the percentage as long as it was above the current average.

This.  Clinics with high stats like that are usually pretty awful.  They refuse many of patients and really only work with people who they think have very high chances of success.  None of them would have taken me.

I am cycling with an out of town clinic.  It's a 5 hour drive or 1 hour flight.  We have spent a TON of money on travel so you have to account for that.  The hardest part was staying down there for so long during retrieval/transfer and then bed rest after transfer.   It was tough taking what ended up being a full week off of work for that.

MrsSJE2011

katekat8721 said:

ThoseThreeWords said:

That high of a rate makes me wonder if they are just very selective in who they take on as a patient.  Do they reject more difficult cases to keep their numbers so high?

I'm considering going to another state for a top RE if things go poorly (praying so hard that it won't get to that point).  I have friends I can live with for a month or so in the other state, though.
GL!

siggie warning

OP, if you are talking about the clinic in Spokane, WA, their stats are very much skewed by the patients they accept, so be very, very wary.  For instance, take a look at the number of patients they cycle with DOR -- hardly any.  Compare that to the other regional clinics that have excellent success rates with high number of DOR patients -- CCRM, ORM, and SRM, for instance (they all have lots of out of state and international patients).  SART statistics can be very deceiving unless you really pay close attention to the numbers.  Please do NOT make decisions about which clinic to visit based solely on success rates or live birth rates; you have to look at everything.  Also pay attention to their historical numbers -- not just the last year or two -- and you will see marked differences.  

We traveled to an out of state clinic for higher success rates.

Iris that was the clinic! Thank you for telling me that! You are right, the numbers do look skewed to obtain favorable outcomes. There is so much to learn from this process, it can be overwhelming! Thanks for your insight!

This exactly! The clinic I go to has lower SART scores that the other clinic that we looked at.  When talking to my RE about it, he mentioned that he often gets patients that have tried to go to the other clinic but were told that they "could not help them".  My clinic's numbers may be lower, but a piece of that is that they accept the more difficult cases. 

Don't forget: You can make statistics say whatever you want!

katekat8721

Thank you all very much!

Hubby and I talked about this quite a bit last night, and we both feel that 1) the WA clinic is misleading and not worth trying to jump ship over and 2) way more comfortable with the idea of staying local. I'm not sure of the schedule of events, but I imagine I'm going to be needing to go in for u/s and b/w quite a bit and I'd much rather have that be a simple 30 min drive rather than hopping on a plane to go We also feel very comfortable with the IVF doctor and know the whole staff, so I'm thinking that will help with my nerves! IVF consult is now scheduled for August 19th with our local clinic. I'm excited to finally get the ball rolling!

MrsSJE2011

So glad you were able to come to a decision you and DH are comfortable with

amcastord

Glad you guys feel good about the decision. THAT is the most important thing when you're embarking on this process. I'm fortunate that I can "monitor" locally and just go down for procedures to our out of state clinic. GL with your consult