IVF - deciding if its for your family?

ctnj

What are your considerations in making this decision?  We did not have to consider it first go-round so its new to us. 

We have enough money to do it, but is it the best use a hunk of our savings?

Would it stress us out too much?  Would it negatively impact our marriage?

Would I be depressed if I spent that much and it didn't work?

Would I be happy if it did work?

So many unknowns.  Just curious what things other people consider.  In some ways I'm satisfied with our little family of 3. 

AmyLynn78

Wow. We are in the exact same boat.

I am finished with initial screenings and we meet with the doc next week to make a plan. I feel like the last year has been an emotional and stressful roller coaster and perhaps the definitiveness of this plan will help all that.

My husband and I are very happy with our little family of 3 (our daughter will be 3 this April) but we also really want her to have a sibling. It's important to us.

Our insurance will pay for 4 attempts total (IUI or IVF) and I am very curious about what the doc will say next week. I have very very very low AMH levels, so it is a long shot either way, and while I am a glass half full kind of girl, I also am trying to keep reality in check here. There is a really good chance that we will run out of attempts before it works. And while I love my family of 3, I am not ready to be "Ok" yet.

 I have no answers to your questions...I have the same ones. But I am with you. 

nawlinsgrl

CTNJ, I can't speak to your particular situation other than to say those are great questions that only you can answer (although feedback from others is always great to hear), but since I had insurance coverage, it was a no-brainer to go ahead and try that.

AmyLynn, if you do need IUI or IVF, I would strongly recommend going straight to IVF, as your chances of success are at least double that of IUI, and if it were me, I wouldn't waste precious insurance coverage on a lesser treatment. It's still up to you of course, but wanted to throw out my two cents.

TripMomma

The financial aspect is the main reason IVF was never on the table for us.

The other big reason I wasn't keen to do it was what if we got a huge amount of frosties. Would we give them all a chance, would we allow them to be adopted, destroyed or given to research. I wasn't excited about making those decisions.

egsquared

For me, I never wanted to look back 5 years from now and wish I would have done IVF, so we tried it. We also have insurance coverage for it, so the financial part wasn't a question. We are super fortunate in that aspect because we would not have been able to afford IVF on our own.


AmyLynn, I have a super low AMH, less than 0.16. We were told by 2 RE's to move directly to IVF. We did one cycle and had only 2 embies to transfer. They both took! So there is hope with low AMH and IVF!


Good luck in making your decisions ladies! I know it's tough.

notkateanymore

IVF is not an option for us because of the price. We have the money, but it's not how we choose to spend it. We're moving forward with injects and IUI this cycle or next, but IVF is not an option. We have one healthy wonderful child...if I can't have another one with the ways we've decided on, it wasn't meant to be for us. We were actually done trying all together, but I didn't "feel" done, so we're giving it the old college try for closure. 

kofmkg

IVF is not an option for us.  We both struggled ethically and religiously with how we would handle any possible remaining frosties.

And for the same reasons as a pp, while we have the money to do IVF, it's just not how we would choose to spend our money.  We don't have the insurance coverage, though.

We'll proceed with IUI/injects cycles this summer and then determine whether adoption or being happy as a family of three is in store.