Cost v Success Rates

amcastord · January 2012

Question:

My husband and I have recently committed to pursuing IVF and are now trying to decide: do we continue with the doc we started with (who has done all the work-up, 2 IUIs and has a higher success rate--but also happens to be 4 hours from home and is more expensive) or do we stay local (with much better pricing/payment options but about 10%lowe success rate)...

What do you do?? Husband wants to stay local, thinks travel and time from work will add more stressors...I just want to be sure we make the right choice. I know couples who have used both facilities with success...

Thoughts????

Roxie5739 · January 2012

10% lower success rate is a big deal for me. I would go with the best success rate within a doable distance from home. Is there no other clinics around?

amcastord · January 2012

No...well, one, but with even lower rates! Big decision...it would be even more added cost of travel and time away from work, but really makes sense to continue on in NC vs staying in WV. I'm afraid I'd always wonder, what if we'd gone to Wake Forest...

Roxie5739 · January 2012

That is the $64M question. Do not do anyting that you will live to regret. It may be more time and $ but that way you will never say 'what if". I have the same issue now with when I start IVF#2. I am impatient to get started but know if I wait one more month I may have a better chance of success this time around. GL in what you decide!

winstonc22 · January 2012

Four hours is a lot of travel time - is it doable for you? Will it cause problems with work?

I wouldn't have been able to do that with my job. I had enough trouble with appointments and my clinic was on my way to work, and often had me done and out the door by 8:15am.

If you can swing the time and money, in your shoes I'd definitely take the clinic with the better odds. I left my previous job (we moved) and am now travelling to my old clinic, even though there are a number that are closer and cheaper. A successful cycle is more valuable to me than the travel time and the money.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

LaLe09 · January 2012

Personally, I'd go with the clinic with better success rates. Maybe you can do some of your monitoring at a local clinic to cut down on travel costs? Good luck.

BeeBee08 · January 2012

Roxie5739:
That is the $64M question. Do not do anyting that you will live to regret. It may be more time and $ but that way you will never say 'what if". I have the

This! Good Luck!

maggie2324 · January 2012

(I'm just lurking from 3T, but felt the urge to post)

Im a numbers gal - I've got a teachers license in math, so it makes complete sense to me to go with the clinic with higher success rates.

However, because of cost and travel in this situation, I personally would go with the local clinic. One reason is, success rates have way too many factors involved for it to be that cut and dry.

Clinics want higher success rates published for obvious reasons and they can easily manipulate the data to get them. It's as easy as turning patients away that do not have good odds, or many many other things. Another huge aspect of the data is the demographics of the patients. Not all clinics are equal, by any means, but in the end, your success rate if you have the same exact IVF procedure and do the same amount of bed rest, is going to be just about the same no matter where you go.

The main difference is going to be what they advise you to do as far as how many embryos of what quality to put back, 3dt or 5dt, assisted hatching, ICSI, etc etc. One clinic might let patients choose these things more freely, while another may have strict policies on them.

You need to make the decision that's right for you, but I think basing it entirely on the success rates does not make sense. Good luck with your decision!

babina868 · January 2012

I had to consider this too, but I think I had an easier time deciding since the local clinic's success rates are like 20% lower, and the long-distance clinic is only 2 - 2.5 hours away, not 4 like yours!

My OBGYN, who is local, lets me do monitoring at her office, which does make things a lot easier. But my RE's office stopped trusting my OBGYN's u/s tech at the end of stimming for IVF, so I had to make the daily drives on my last few days of stimming, which essentially meant I had to take more than a half day from work those days, and it wasn't expected. Also, sometimes I can't get into my OBGYN's office for monitoring, so I have to find a different monitoring site, which can be stressful since it's so last minute, but there's a general scheduling number I can call for a hospital system around here and I can usually get in to one of their u/s and my RE's office just faxes the order to them.

Besides monitoring issues, there really isn't any added stress from using a long-distance clinic. Everything's over the phone or e-mail anyway, so there's not much difference than if the clinic were local.

For me, it's not just money and the driving that's stressful -- IVF involves a lot of time and energy regardless of where you cycle, and it made me feel better that my clinic had good success rates.

genmalone · January 2012

We're in a similar situation but in the reverse. I love my RE but now that we're moving to IVF I've done more research. My clinic has some of the worst success rates in Houston. We have another opinion scheduled for next week. We are 100% OOP and this is entirely too important to go with mediocre.

At the end of the day you have to go with what makes you comfortable. 4 hours each way is a lot of driving but 10% is a big difference. Good luck in your decision!

amcastord · January 2012

Thanks ladies! You've all given me a lot to think about...I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, helps tremendously!!

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