injectables

CoCoMarie03

Just wondering..... I have no insurnce coverage and it looks as though I need to move on to injectables.  How does it cost?  That is, if you are willing to share.

Twinkie0612

It really depends on the drug, the dosage, and what pharmacy you get it from. My advice is to find out which meds and how much you will need from your doc and then shop around. I saved around $200 dollars finding my own pharmacy instead of using my clinic's usual pharmacy.

ETA: This was for IVF #1

OutdoorGirl10

Agree with Twinkie0612, shop around. Ask your RE if they have any leftovers from others that they'll give you.   For me, I'm OOP for now (with the insurance annual enrollment we realized my company will pay for some of it, so we're switching to my insurance in Jan). The initial meds order went to 3 different places and the estimates were all between $9500 - $12,000.  That initial order included the leftovers they were going to give me, so after they revised the order, we ended up paying about $5300.  Although we're totally out of pocket, we discovered that insurance did in fact cover 3 of the medications. One of the pharmacies I talked with said it was because the medication has multiple purposes and isn't a specialized medication.

CoCoMarie03

Thank you!  The information everyone gave me is very valuable.  For some reason, I thought that  I HAD to use the pharmacy that my RE uses.  Now I know that I can shop around, and I will do just that.  I'm sure it will still be expensive, but hopefully worth it.  Now I'm starting to think, that if it is THAT expensive for the injectables, I might want to just go forward with IVF instead of IUI.  Any thoughts on that?  I'm trying to save any $$ that I can.  I'm sure all of you are too.

CoCoMarie03

Tigger99.  That has been my thoughts during this whole process!  Try everything at least once before IVF.  Now, I'm starting to think it could save money just going straight to IVF.  It's all quite exhausting!

ksgsmu

My IUI's including meds have run about 4,000.00  ( but I need high dose of meds). 
My IVF will cost about 22,000 including Meds ( more of the same thing I used for my last IUI) ICSI, PGS testing and a FET.

 Most REs like to do atleast one injectible cycle before moving on to IVF so they can see how you respond. This of course depends on your diagnosis and age etc...

good luck!

violetmarie61516

My IVF cycle will be nearing 24,000 including meds and pgs, that is for 10 days worth of stims.  Definitely shop around for meds. 

CoCoMarie03

So has anybody found that they respond better with injectables? Especially if you didn't respond nearly at all to oral meds?

TaylorH84

My RE is through a university but also affiliated with a major hospital in the area and because I had my HSG there and used their pharmacy I only paid about 500 for my all meds...lupron, gonal f, menopur and crinone. Pretty sure that's a steal based on what others say. Look around and there's also a group on here for OOP who share their old meds I believe. Goodluck!

CoCoMarie03

TaylorH84 Thank you so much! I will look into the group! Great insight.

mccall0113

Ask your RE for donor med programs.

becomingmommyagain

The cost of your meds will greatly depend on the protocol.

My first cycle cost me $5,300.  I was on follistim 225, menopur 75 then upped to 150, ganirellix, and crinone.  Was supposed to be a 10 cycle, but retrieved after 7 days.

Second cycle was roughly $3500.  I was lucky to have so much leftover meds from cycle one.  My meds were the same but upped menopur to 150 for whole cycle.  

Cycle three we switched everything. Meds were $2200. I did lupron, 300 follistim, 75 menopur.  No need for the ganirellix on lupron, so that saved a ton of money.  I also switched to progesterone in oil which is way cheaper than Crinone.

It is worth while to discuss med costs with your doc.   We were able to do 3 cycles for roughly $11,000.  

We used Walgreen specialty pharmacy for most everything, but have found mandell in New Jersey to be very good and reasonable as well.  Walgreen will enroll you in all the program and specialty discounts and you won't need to do anything special.

We were 100% out of pocket on meds too.

vpine

Fertility Freedom lists their prices online: https://www.freedomfertility.com/fertility-medications/medications-and-pricing.aspx.

For me: I used 3 vials of Bravelle and 2 vials of Menupor in 1 injection for 10 days, 1 Ovidrel injection, 4 Cetrotide injections, using 3 Endometrin inserts daily for the 2WW and possibly 1st trimester, also using Minivelle patches, Estradiol pills and Prednisone pills. So in total if I was OOP and were to use Freedom Fertility, total would have been $5-6K for 1 IVF cycle on meds.

CoCoMarie03

Oh...My...Where is this money going to come from?!  ahhh!  Thanks for the info ladies.  I knew this was going to get more and more expensive, but I think it is just now really starting to sink in with how everything is piling up.

CoCoMarie03

Thank you!  I am looking into that right now! @IFinTN

CeeCee82

I was about to pay about $3,600 but ended up going with IVFPharmacy site and paid $2,176. It's a company in Israel and I got my meds in a week. It was a HUGE risk, I know, but my DH is "thrifty" and we were desperate. My experience was good.

CeeCee82

Oh, and Alexanders Twin Pharmacy is good too, pricewise, for a safer option.

CoCoMarie03

How was the customer service for the pharmacy in Israel?  I could use any help I can get in the price department!  Are you still using them? @CeeCee82

CeeCee82

I would say it was really good!! A nice lady with an NY area code called me the night after my order to check if I needed the Follistim pen (I didn't) because I hadn't ordered it. I used them for some meds during my 1st IVF (again, good experience), then used them for all my meds in last months IVF. I did read about some bad experiences with them, but I was OOP for this IVF and broke!  

FloridaSun82

I used Prosperity Pharmacy which was by far the cheapest I found. Make sure your nurse knows that you're OOP, they may be able to give you some meds. I responded so slowly to meds that they needed to order more 3 times. However, the nurse started feeling bad and gave me Follistim and Ganirelix for free!

CoCoMarie03

Thank you all!  All of the info really helps.