Infertility
Long distance IVF
I am considering going to New York because they offer EZ IVF . (fewer meds and cheaper) The thing is that I live quite a distance from there. The RE there said I could do all of my monitoring locally and simply fly to NY for retrieval and transfer.
That sounds good, but I'm thinking there is no way it could really be that simple. Have any of you ladies done this? Is it realistic to assume that I could fly to NY one time, for a week, and everything else could be done locally?
I'm also wondering if working with two centers would end up costing quite a bit. My primary reason for going to the NY clinic is fewer meds and great reviews, etc for the doctors and center. Thoughts?
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Re: Long distance IVF
Have any of you ladies done this? Yes
Is it realistic to assume that I could fly to NY one time, for a week, and everything else could be done locally? For me it has not been this simple. I have my baseline monitoring completed locally. The next week I travel and have an u/s to see how I am responding. I never respond well, so I am always out of town for at least two weeks.
I'm also wondering if working with two centers would end up costing quite a bit. My primary reason for going to the NY clinic is fewer meds and great reviews, etc for the doctors and center. Thoughts? I'm not working with two clinics. I have my monitoring done at a hospital in their out-patient radiology department. It has not cost me too much more, because my RE codes the u/s so that my insurance covers them.
You also have to factor in travel and place to stay. My clinic is 6hrs away, so I drive, and I stay with family.
::: Married June 2003:::
TTC #1 since: Aug. 2008
Me: 34, DOR, MTHFR-A1298C (heterozygous), decreased blood flow to uterus, Mild Endo
DH: 38, Balanced translocation 5&10, unexplained MFI, normal SA and SCSA
Tx History: IUI 1&2= BFN
IVF# 1 W/ICSI= BFN
IVF# 2: cancelled d/t no response
IVF# 3= 1 egg retrieved=immature/not viable
IVF# 4= c/p
***CCRM ODWU***
Found DHs BT and Me-decreased blood flow to uterus
Recommended DE IVF w/PGD, incorporate electro-acupuncture. Decided to cycle locally
***New RE***
DE IVF# 1(cycle #6) w/pgd, (freeze all): 30R, 23M, 15F, slow/poor embryo development, 4 biopsied, 1 Normal "Norm"; DE IVF w/PGD, incorporate electro-acupuncture.
IVF# 6: (OE/DS) cancelled
IVF# 7: (OE/DS) 1R, 1M, 1F, arrested day 5
Plan-DE IVF# 2 (cycle #8): DE/DS in May 2015
http://icanhazbabyz.blogspot.com/
You say ez ivf is 3 retrievals. Does this mean there will be a retrieval each week? Why are the retrievals not done at once, as with conventional ivf?
Our insurance only covers pre cycle diagnostic testing.
I know I have spoken to you several times about this and I really do not think you have a realistic view of what ez or miniIVF is. And I reviewed S.IRMs fee schedule and ezIVF is more expensive than their conventional package. I have no problems w. ezIVF so don't get me wrong, if you want to do low stim then by all means this is good for you, however cheap is not the draw.
ezIVF is low stim, so either Clomid or Clomid and low dose injectable meds. You get 2-3 eggs per cycle and you cycle three times, freezing your embryos each cycle. After the third you thaw them and see which ones of the 6-9 embryos are the ones best suited to transfer. An option SIRM offers is ER without anesthesia which is less expensive than the standard way. You are on lower doses of meds but for a much longer period of time, so you aversions to meds may be negated by this.
Originally this has been the option for women who produce 2-3 eggs per cycle super aggressive protocols and maximum meds or for women who may have compromised egg quality on these protocols. As I mentioned in a previous thread, you have the added expense of freezing all your embryos and your H needs to have the needle aspiration 3x.
So your retreivals are done over three back to back or skip cycles, and your entire IVF takes at minimum three months to complete. It is not done all at once like a conventional IVF because the POINT of it is that you are LOW STIM LOW YIELD, non-conventional IVF.
If you are talking low stim, one ER then you are not talking about conventional ezIVF and in doing so is misleading and confusing and yu really need to be informed of the repercussions of this approach.
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https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/62007524.aspx
We are doing conventional IVF but we are doing it through a clinic which is 4 hours away from us. For us we did our initial b/w with our clinic at home and they were able to fax everything to our clinic thats in MD. Our clinic in Maryland does alot of stuff over the phone as far as when to start meds. We will go for our baseline and injections class and then come home for a week before I have to go back to Maryland for monitoring. I will have to be in MD for about a week to two weeks depending on how I respond. Luckily the hospital has housing available at little to no cost and I was able to take leave from work so that I don't have to worry about coming back for work.
I know its a little different scenario but we also chose to do this because it is costing us about 1/2 of what a normal IVF cycle would which will allow us to be able to afford to do IVF more than once where as if we were paying the full price we would only be able to do it once.
Yeah, I figured it couldn't possibly be as easy as it sounded. Thanks for the info!
I also copied this off of their site, which sounds different from what you are talking about:
EZ-IVF is also known elsewhere as "minimal stimulation IVF." The ovaries of a woman are minimally stimulated, using low doses of oral medications (like clomid or femara) or gonadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, in order to encourage the growth of a small cohort of eggs (some women though will still be high producers even with this low stim, and thats fine). Once mature, the eggs are retrieved and fertilized in the lab, and the resulting embryos are transferred back into the woman's uterus.
I am a beginner at this, however. So I know I may be misunderstanding a lot of what I'm reading/hearing. I appreciate your advice!
I consulted with dr T as well and make a good number per IUI and he stated ezIVF would stim even lower than those cycles. We discussed the multi stim package that was the equivalent to a standard stim protocol. If you are a high responder on low stim and understand the repurcussions of a small cohort IVF cycle, then this all works in your favor and I apologize for the confusion. I am responding to the more conventional implementation of low stim protocols.
Clearly you wont be surprised or upset if you get 3 follicles at ER.
No need for apology. I'm sure you know more about all of this than I do. I am aware that there will be fewer follicles, which is why I'm still weighing my decisions. However, I am also aware that it isn't unlikely to have to do multiple cycles, regardless of protocol. This is why I am leaning more toward the ez ivf, which will at least be easier on me (in multiples) than conventional.
I may be incorrect, but what I gleaned from Dr. T and the website information is that ez ivf is still done one cycle at a time, but it yields fewer follicles. This way there would still be 1 ER and 1 ET done, per cycle, with fresh embryos.
I guess I don't understand why the multi stim package would be helpful unless a person simply doesn't respond well. I can see where a single cycle of ez ivf, even done multiple times, would be better than multiple cycles of conventional ivf, in terms of avoiding OHSS and saving money on some meds. I could be missing something though.
Yes, each cycle is one ER and low responders can benefit from banking embryos.
Many people respond extremely well w.out risk of OHSS. Also, the most expensive part of IVF is the ER and labwork, which is generally the same cost regardless of the number of embryos being cultured, except for ICSI which is often number dependent.