cost of conceiving

newmompeanut · August 2013

I really am not trying to pry, but I am very interested in the costs of conceiving. B and I won't be trying for a second child (our first one was conceived with my exhusband) for a while, but I'd like to start planning and saving! I know each case is different, but if you wouldn't mind could you spell out what options you've tried, how much it cost, and if/how much was covered by your insurance?

Thank you!

KH826 · August 2013

Unfortunately the costs vary A LOT depending on lots of factors... What your insurance covers, where you live, the pricing at the clinic you go to (if you decide to go through a clinic), how many attempts it takes if you start with IUI... There are some people that inseminate at home with a known donor and costs are minimal, others spend tens of thousands.... And everything in between...

So keeping in mind that everyone's experience is different, here is what we have paid so far (insurance covered my initial visit to the RE and diagnostic testing, but then covered nothing after that -- below does not include co-pays for initial visits, money spent on over the counter things like OPKs, Pregnancy Tests, Basal Body Temp Thermometer, and also the acupuncture that I started doing during my 5th cycle):

*first 3 vials of sperm from fairfax cryobank = $2150 *3 more vials of sperm from Northwest cryobank =$1150 *5 IUIs @ $485 a pop = $2425 *4 of the 5 IUIs were monitored cycles, so monitoring including ultrasounds about $300 per cycle = $1200 *3 of the IUIs were medicated (femara and ovidrel trigger) = $535 *IVF 1 fresh & 1 frozen cycle package = $6500 *IVF meds for 1 cycle = $2500 --- Total = $16,460

Not trying to scare you, by any means. Some pay way less than this and yet pregnant with minimal intervention/cost. But some others do spend A LOT.

No matter what you decide when you are ready to try, just know that the path you end up on may not be what you had originally planned, and you and your partner will have to pause and calculate costs and next steps and make sure you are on the same page before moving to whatever is next.

trisholio · August 2013

It does vary a lot, but here is our situation.

We are using a known donor and doing the insemination at home, BUT we are seeing an RE and I am on Clomid. We went to our RE in April to make sure everything was good because we had tried previously and never got pregnant. We did basic bloodwork at different times of the month, a water 3d ultrasound to check the uterus for any problems and a basic ultra sound. Those tests are covered under our insurance and costs around $2,000 before insurance. An ultrasound and dr visit runs around $300 and then the medication. Clomid is pretty inexpensive. Even though we have good insurance and they cover a lot we still have paid out of pocket around $700 this year. It is a lot less then most people, but still money out of your pocket.

healz413 · August 2013

We are lucky that in Ontario IUIs are covered as a part of the provincial health insurance so we have not had to pay for RE visits, ultrasounds, or bloodwork. That said, we pay $800 per vial of sperm and $150 per insemination as the insemination fee. Some clinics charge administrative fees but ours doesn't other than that $150 insemination fee.
M's insurance now covers most of our meds at 100% but through April they were only covered at 60%.
We have done 4 IUIs so far at $950 per IUI (sperm plus insemination fee)= $3800.
We also had to pay $1800 to cover the 40% we had to pay for the injectables we did in March.
There were also some smaller costs for uncovered percentages of Clomid and Femara.
In addition, we bought 5 vials of sperm in April when our donor sold out and we thought we were about to move on the a bunch of IUIs with me (before we knew I had to have my tubes removed). One of those was used on IUI #4 but we still have 4. So that's another $3200.
That puts us at $8800 so far (plus the costs for the Femara, ovidril, and Clomid that I have forgotten and probably get is close to $10,000).

If the IUIs we are doing this fall don't work, we will be moving on to IVF. Because I had both tubes removed, the provincial health care plan will cover about $2200 of the IVF fee. The remaining costs will be $6350 (including ICSI and freezing extra embryos). And if we have to do frozen embryo transfers, those will be $1750 each. M's drug plan will hopefully cover most (or all) of my drug costs.

Jazibel · August 2013

The costs really do vary. Cost was one of the reasons we chose a known donor after trying the traditional route for a while unsuccessfully - for my son, and are using the same KD this time. The costs are much less - but there's the complication of having used a KD which isn't for everyone.

songbird31 · August 2013

I agree with pp that it varies so greatly. Before we switched insurance in the middle of ttc, we had some coverage... But here is a general breakdown.

We bought 2 batches of vials to minimize shipping costs and had them shipped. At 800/vial for 11 vials (our donor was popular so we stocked up for siblings), 250 for shipping each time, 350 for storage at re office (yearly fee).
Initial doc appt was covered but all the bloodwork was not. This was around 700 bucks for the initial visit which included work on me and S. we paid out if pocket for a mandatory counseling session, $150, our iui costs were about 375 a piece times 4, this included the procedure and vial prep. I would ask your re about all of the fees associated above and beyond the actual iui. All u/s were about 150, which I got one to two per cycle. The clomid was cheap, but because the femara was not being used for cancer treatment, it was OOP at $215. The trigger shot which we ended up buying 3 was $100.

Now I expect to pay my full OOP max this year to cover the birth and all the prenatal care which varies significantly for medical plans. All the fees that we paid to ttc did not go toward the deductible or OOP max because they did not cover it. So I would just remember that when considering medical plans and OOP max amounts.

The bonus is save all your receipts including vial purchase. You can deduct all that on your taxes as medical expenses.

Greysmom13 · August 2013

I have been really lucky. I used an anonymous donor through Cryobiology per suggestion via my RE. I bought two vials and that cost about $1100.00 and then $250.00 a year to store at my RE. I had some testing done due to being over 35 years old, and had a surgical procedure to remove polyps pre-IUI. All tests and procedures have been covered by my insurance. I paid my co-pay when I went to RE (usually but sometimes paid nothing). I had two IUI's done throughout two days and didn't have to pay my co-pay.

I got my BFP after my first attempt at IUI and was on progesterone the first nine weeks. This was going to cost me $1000.00 out of pocket but my RE office gave me samples (weeks worth) and I got a discount card through Walgreens to help with the cost so I paid about $200 total for the nine weeks worth (my insurance didn't cover that). Since being release to my OB, I haven't paid for anything at all. I hope this helps you and shows how the cost can really vary.

clairmeij · August 2013

I did a lot of research and found that Kaiser Colorado has a great reproductive endocrinology department, their rates were much lower than the local reproductive clinics and are very lesbian friendly. I calculated that even if we had to try for a full year with me paying for Kaiser insurance out of pocket, it would cost us less than doing 3 iuis at the local clinic. So...at open enrollment I left my company sponsored insurance and enrolled with Kaiser.

For 5 iuis at $147, 5 vials of sperm at $915 each with shipping, probably 8 acupuncture sessions at $65 each, femara/letrozole for about $30, trigger shot at about $120 and 5 ultrasounds at $130. Kaiser coverage for me was $245 a month. All in all it cost less than $10,000. For comparison, one iui at the local clinic costs $3,000. They also would have required a full medical and psych workup for the noon carrying partner for about $3000 too.

StacyLH24 · August 2013

I have been very lucky that all of my costs have been covered by insurance, other than the vials of course. Here is a breakdown of our costs so far:

3 vials from Northwest Cryobank plus shipping: $1069.00 ($300/vial and $169 for shipping)

Initial RE visit copay: $20

HSG test copay: $20

First follicle monitoring copay: $20

First and second months of Femara: $20 ($10 each time)

Antibiotic for first IUI: $10

So far we are up to $1159.00. I just had my first IUI on Monday, so I still haven't gotten a bill for that yet or the follicle monitoring for this cycle. Our RE's office bills the insurance company first. Whatever isn't covered is then billed to us. Luckily, our office offers 6 months of storage for free. After that, if we have any vials to store, it will be $200/year.

Without such great insurance, we would be well into probably $4000.00 at a minimum at this point. My insurance sends me statements of what the procedures/visits cost and then shows how much they covered and what my copay is. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate.

ball.and.chain · August 2013

My process has been long, but I am lucky to have had my insurance cover everything. I've only paid for sperm, co-pays, and over-the-counter supplies like OPKs. We also got 4 vials of sperm refunded due to low counts, so even though we did 9 IUIs and one IVF cycle (10 vials total), we only paid for 6. I estimate my cost to be between $5k and $6k, but I am still working on getting a baby.

2brides · August 2013

When all was said and done, we figured we spent about $17k to have our kids. That was sperm for 2 insems a month for 9 cycles. I did various meds, tests, etc along the way. But we got a 2 for 1 deal, so not bad at all.

ATXmommas · August 2013

After a quick calculation, we're around $8500-9000, but over half that cost is the sperm alone. We chose to buy 9 vials at one time (to plan for siblings down the road). Because of the quantity we bought, we got one free (so paid for 8 at $675/vial), received a one-time free shipping, and two years free storage. Because Fairfax Cryobank has a facility in Austin, we were able to ship all 9 at once, so we never had to pay a shipping fee. I know that cost can really add up when you have to ship it each time. So, sperm cost around $5400.

We had to have a mandatory counseling session before first IUI at around $125.

I had two HSGs - once before TTC, another one after our loss. Insurance covered it, and my OOP was around $75. Another $150.

Ultrasounds were about $200 and IUI was around $190, but there was a 20% surcharge on the weekends, so we paid more some cycles. I had two U/S for the first 3 cycles and just one U/S for the second 2 cycles (all out of pocket). THere was a $90 fee for preparing the sperm and Fairfax charged us to $45 to get vials out of storage (we got 2 out at a time, and stored the 1 we didn't use for the IUI in a temporary storage at the place that prepared the sperm). All that comes out to around 3000.

I used Femara, but my insurance covered it, and my OOP was really cheap - less than $10. Insurance also covered progesterone - it was more expensive than the Femara, but not bad - $45 maybe.

Although my insurance doesn't cover most of the expenses, I do have a Flexible Health Spending Account that I started to put $100 of my paycheck into each month. That helped. Our plans start over in September, so I had $1200 automatically at my disposable at the beginning of the year.

It's good you are thinking about this now. It's definitely a lot to think about and prepare for! Wish I knew more when we had started.

lbugher · August 2013

I'm in Indiana and my insurance pays zero - zilch - zip for IF treatments. That means this process is very spendy for us. One benefit we do have is a health savings account and our employers give us $1500 each per year, and we can contribute a maximum of $2000 of our own money per year into the account. It doesn't go far, though, in this. We paid $2000 on 3 vials of prewashed IUI sperm but we got free storage for a year through a discount. On average, here's the costs associated with my IUI:

Ultrasound: $250

Insemination: $230

Ovidrel: $130

So overall... I paid $610 for this IUI, plus one vial of sperm = ~$1275 a pop.

It ain't cheap, that's for sure. What's frustrating the ever-loving Hell out of me is the fact that DP has a huge chunk of HSA money we could use if we were *legally* married but since the IRS still hasn't made up it's mind as to whether or not to respect marriages solemnized with legal celebrations in the handful of states that allow SSM, we can't use it to help me get knocked up.

We did save a bit of money but not a lot. We're going to cut down on expenses elsewhere and keep our fingers crossed that we won't have to do this many times over. We have enough funds to try this two more times, and then we'll have to start fresh next year when we get another influx of funds from HSA.

Anyway, that's where we stand. Ours is probably the "worst case" scenario. There are ways we could probably do it cheaper but I wanted an open ID donor and I was willing to pay extra so my future child can know their history and possibly connect with the man who helped bring them into this world. Of course, I hope DP and I are enough for our kids but some people get incredibly bent out of shape about these sort of things and I don't want to deprive my kid if this is important to them.

firstcomeslove2013 · August 2013

we saw something about the coupons online...glad to see that someone used these...I was worried it was a scam!

Manada · August 2013

H. basically itemized it for us. I think the last time I added it all up it was around $11,000 so far - though for us most of that is the cost of sperm (we have purchased 8 vials at $800 each inc. shipping and 1 year storage). And some of that cost was covered at 60% by my benefits plan from work.

I think that, now that we are planning 2 more IUI and an IVF in the fall - our grand total will likely come in around $20,000-$28,000 by the time we are all said and done, and either have a baby (or two!) - or we thrown in the towel, take a break, and consider other options. That will depend on a) whether we do another injects cycle to try to wake up my ovaries, and b) how many FET's we are able to (have to) get from our IVF cycle, as they will be about $2000 each OOP for us.

Manada · August 2013

and I look back and laugh at my poor, naive self now - who - just a year ago - thought that it would be totally reasonable for us to have saved $6000 for our TTC costs!

KH826 · August 2013

Manada, I feel the same way! We set aside $7k to start trying in January, and I was hopeful we wouldn't have to spend all of that and could take a nice vacation if we got pregnant on the first or second try! Well... after learning that my insurance covered nothing, and after 5 failed IUIs, we had spend the total amount that we set aside for TTC and had started dipping into savings. Now that we are on the IVF path, we have pretty well maxed ourselves out for the time being, but I am hopeful that we will have success and several frozen embryos for the future. I keep telling myself that we are investing in our family, but it is still hard when I think about the fact that we have paid just under $17k this year and we still aren't pregnant yet. If you told me last year that would be the case, I would have laughed and told you that we could never afford to spend that much in such a short period of time. It is funny when you are determined to make something happen how you are able to actually make things happen financially. We have made a lot of sacrifices and changes to our lifestyle, and in the long run it will probably prepare us to be a 1 income household for a while after we have a baby (my wife plans to be a stay at home mom). In the end I know it will be worth it, but man I was NOT prepared for this until we were knee deep in it.

Jeveritt11 · August 2013

We used a KD and did an at home insemination. My insurance is very good an pays 90% of the cost of having a baby. The only true expense we will have is the adoption process for DP to adopt our LO, which will be about $3500-$4000.

JoySeattle · September 2013

We did home inseminations with frozen sperm, bought our in-demand and now retired donor vials in bulk, and got pregnant after 3 cycles (with a 3 year gap between the first two and the last one that was our bfp during which I improved my health/weight).

Here's our breakdown:

$70 donor info from the cryobank
$8165 for 16 vials of sperm [we've used 4, so we have 12 left for sibling(s)]
$1300 storage for first 5 years [expires at the end of the year]
$1495 storage for second 5 years [that will take us through the end of 2018]
$560 shipping
$30 liquid nitrogen tank refill

$11,620 total

That amount doesn't include a ton of opks, some hpts, a lot of acupuncture, and the co-pay for the progesterone that I was on for the first trimester (as a precaution, not because I was clinically low). Including those it would most likely have been closer to $12-13,000, but we hope we can get another baby with our vials and storage within the next few years.

deegadee13 · September 2013

Holy cow you guys are accurate. I only remember that we spent enough to qualify for the tax write off but not enough for it to be worth A filing itemized..I think it was around $7,000ish + 2 vials of sperm.

In MA insurance covers infertility treatment, but the definition is weird and obviously every insurance provider is different. For us the test to prove infertility (HSG) was covered if it came back positive and we had to pay for it oop if it was inconclusive. I remember that being close to a $3,000 gamble that we won. All "treatments" were covered including a small co-pay for a polypectomy, but drugs were almost completely oop, which when you are doing IVF drugs are a huge cost.

If you are in a state with insurance coverage, I would recommend calling your provider often and keeping copious notes. I ended up fighting with (and getting a big refund from) mine, but it helped knowing who told me what on which day.

I think the best advice we got was "If you wait until you can afford to have a baby, you never will"

KH826 · September 2013

deegadee13 said:
I think the best advice we got was "If you wait until you can afford to have a baby, you never will"

This is so true! That is what I tell myself too as we have scraped together the almost $18k that we are now OOO for our TTC efforts this year. I honestly don't even know how we did it, but we did. Our savings is pretty much gonzo at this point, but it is what it is. We are both gainfully employed, with job security, so there you have it.

newmompeanut · September 2013

Thank you all for being so open and telling me! You've all given some really great advice

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