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TTC After a Loss 6 Months+
heathergirl67
member
WWYD?
heathergirl67
member
So I went in today for my mid-cycle u/s. They saw one good follicle developing and MH will trigger me Wednesday morning and we'll do the insemination on Thursday afternoon. I'm a little confused, though because I thought that the Clomid was supposed to make me produce more than one follicle? The nurses I talked to said that it doesn't always, but even when only producing one follicle on Clomid the outcome seems to be better than producing one follicle on your own. Okay, whatever. I'm kinda bummed but it's not too big of a deal. I told the nurse that I would like to try to let go of more than one egg for my next IUI cycle so will my doctor increase my Clomid to do that?
She said my doctor doesn't do that. Others do, mine doesn't. She doesn't know why? She said that if I wanted to grow more follicles next time I would have to do injects and they would definitely make me produce more. But, she said, they're very pricey. My "cheap" Clomid was $100 for five pills. I can only imagine what the injects will cost. She said, "Your insurance covers 50% for fertility stuff right?" I told her she's correct. "If you do the injects next time it will put your total IUI cost over $500."
I looked at her like 
"This is already costing us over $500. By the time we're done with all of this it will be close to $1000- not including the meds." She was suprised. I am very scared to know how much more the injects would cost us. But on the other hand, I sort of thought that the whole point was to release more than one egg. I'm already spending so much money that I sort of feel like: why not do it all the way, yk? I already release one egg each month with no results. The whole reason I wanted to do a medicated IUI is so I could release a few eggs to increase my chances.
WWYD? Shell out the extra money for injects next time? Stick with one Clomid egg for the next IUI? Or do an unmedicated IUI next time?
Also, should I look elsewhere to be doing this? I hear about people who are paying OOP getting their IUIs for $500-$800 so I'm sort of feeling like my insurance isn't doing me any good here.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: WWYD?
I know that with my RE they really do not do IUI's if you have more then two mature follicles. With IVF you want to have a bunch because they take them out and then just put 1-3 (or so) back in. With an IUI if you have too many you could end up like Kate plus eight.
We paid $400 for our IUIs (just the proceedure not the monotoring) plus medicine. You can get clomid from Walmart, Target, Giant Eagle, ect. for $9.00 for 5 pills. If you use femera there is a card that you can print off to get them for less too.
For injectables normally they cost more because there is more monotoring involved. Luckily so far my insurance has paid for all of my monotoring appointments for the IUIs. We had to pay $25 for visit or something like that. I am not sure (but I am hoping that they will pay for them for the IVF because then we can get a little bit of a refund).
Injectables are expensive medications. I know for the 600iui of follistim that I purchased it was like $500. I ended up only using the 300 that my office had given me to get started so I got to save that to use with my IVF (which I ended up running out and the office gave me another 225 of follistim) I used 3225 of follistim for my IVF.
I am not sure if that answered your question or not....
IUI itself usually runs $500-$800 (wash + insemination).
Injects are usually $1k-$3k, depending on how well you respond. My body just laughed aty 150ui of Follistim, so I'm a Repronex + high dose Follistim girl, which makes me on the upper end of the $3k for meds threshhold.
I've had multiple REs tell me that producing more eggs only raises your chances of multiples....it doesn't raise your chance of PG anymore. I never produced more than one follie on oral meds.
Usually, REs want you to do a few oral drug cycles before bringing out the injects. If this is your first clomid IUI (and you did produce one lovely follie), I would do another clomid or femara IUI, and then push for injects (assuming your finances could weather it).
BFP #3 via cancelled IUI ~ C (2lb 3oz; HELLP) 5/16/11
BFP #4 via the natural (free!) way ~ E (8lb 11oz) 9/13/12
I am hoping that THIS cycle will make this whole question irrelevant.
You only need one follie, and the IUI increases the success rates per cycle in unexplained infertility.
That being said, I'd stick with clomid+IUI for another few cycles. The number of follies can vary cycle-to-cycle on the same dose of clomid. Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (medical term for going for multiple follies) does increase pg rates in unexplained infertility, but also comes with multiples risks especially with the trigger and especially for younger women, so your doc is being cautious to avoid a J+K+8 situation. Def shop around for the cheapest clomid and make sure you're getting the generic as I found it really varied pharmacy to pharmacy.
GL- I am rooting for you!
~~~siggy warning - hope you don't mind me responding~~~
Clomid only produced one follie for me each cycle and really that is pretty "normal" response to Clomid. There is an increased chance of multipes - but that's not for everyone....its actually more common for you just to produce one "better" egg on Clomid than to produce multiples.
I did several Clomid cycles and I did get pg on one once we added the IUI into the mix. Personally, I think the Clomid was drying me out too much to be successful which is why the IUI finally worked and that was just with 1 egg mature. So I wouldn't give up hope yet.
I don't remember your exact IF issues, so I'm not sure what I would do exactly. PP comments is right - my RE would only do IUI if there were less than 3 follies (he did mine with 4 but only because I only had one tube and there were two eggs on each side and he was confident that my tube could not pick up eggs from both sides at once). Injectibles are about the only way you will get multiple follies - but especially with IUI - its a guessing game. We "guessed" wrong the first time around and I had ~10 follies that were maturing leading to a cancelled cycle (3 months out because of leftover cysts too). Part of that is due to my PCOS - but its a risk you take. Injectibles can be really expensive too - I think mine would have run me ~1k/cycle if insurance wasn't covering part of the expense.
To me it was a game of chances. I could put 2k into a cycle with a 30% chance of success (inj + IUI) or I could use Clomid which had much worse odds but was a lot cheaper. Our RE's philosophy was to try each cycle 3 times to give it a good shot at working. I know its a lot of $$ in the end - but Clomid with one egg can work.
I'm sorry this is so hard and frustrating.....there is no right answer.
This. GL!
I can tell you on each of my clomid cycles I only had one. It was very disappointing, all of those side effects and while it did push my O forward. I would hope that this is it for you. Also, maybe Femara, some people who don't respond well with the clomid, do better with the Femara. But remember, it only takes one!
<a href="http://s699.photobucket.com/albums/vv353/guppyamy/?action=view
This does seem really high...I'd definitely call a few pharmacies and see if you can get it cheaper. I pay like $11 for 10 pills (my insurance covers the other 50%). I also agree with what PP said about femara. I think it's a bit more expensive but some people respond better to it. Maybe try that before moving to injectables?
BFP #2 - EDD 2/26/12 M/C 6/28/11 @ 5w2d
BFP #3 - EDD 4/7/12 M/C 8/2/11 @ 4w2d
Too beautiful for this earth
BFP #4 - EDD 12/09/12, Lucille arrived 11/26/12
I'm thinking the same thing. Before I do another cycle I'm definitely going to ask a few places about their prices first. I don't feel like I'm getting a discount at all.
So far, my Clomid+IUI cycle cost us about $800, and that is with zero infertility coverage. I got five 100 mg generic Clomid pills for $18 at Kroger. $100 just seems crazy WITH insurance. CVS wanted $38 without insurance. I also only had 1 follicle, which I think is typical for Clomid. As long as you don't have any major issues, I would try this a few more times. I hope this one time is it though!
BFP 12/18/2009. HB 1/4/2010. NO HB 1/18/2010. D&C 1/19/2010
April 2011 IUI #1 BFN. High FSH and other issues.
May 2011 Chose to build our family through adoption
September 2011 Actively waiting for a match
11/26/11 Surprise BFP * DD born 7/23/12
I only had 1 follie with my one clomid cycle. I also O'd earlier, but I think it was too early, that the egg wasn't mature yet. Anyway, I have great prescription coverage, but most ladies pay very little for clomid, so I would definately call about that.
Injects are expensive, but they do make you produce more follies. I think, unless there are some more significant issues that RE's do typically like to try a treatment 3 times before moving on to something else. Some people so see more success (and less side effects) on femara, but my RE won't use it - not all will since it is off label.
Hopefully, this one will be all you need!!