Paying for IVF

FutureMrsBaldwin2012 · June 2014

We are preparing mentally/emotionally to face the fact that we will more than likely be told that we should consider IVF. We are totally oop and we do not have a huge lump sum of money just sitting in the bank. For those if you going through IVF, how are you paying for it? Are there any grants out there that we could apply for? I'm worried that we won't be able to just walk into a bank and be given a loan for $15,000. We both have good credit but banks are becoming pretty stingy with approving unsecured loans.

theholmanherd · June 2014

I think there was a grant I saw, but I can't remember the details. Does your doc offer a payment plan?

AngM123 · June 2014

We were able to get accepted into a warranty program....if you meet all the right criteria, they will refund you a portion of your money if it doesn't work. It will cost us $20,000 (choke back vomit) if it does work, but "only" $5,000 if you fail, and that includes all FETs if applicable. We considered asking family for money, but couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We will be selling a car and DH will take advantage of a work vehicle as well as taking out a home equity loan to pay for this. Our cars are payed off, and we considered trading one in for a new one anyways, so we justify this as just being another car payment.....

lebradford · June 2014

I am not doing IVF right now, so I don't really know much about it, but I've heard of people going to other countries for IVF. I know that's kind of extreme, and you'd definitely have to do research, but it's one thing to consider.

Another thing to consider possibly is either moving to a state that mandates IVF coverage (like IL, though there are a few), or getting a job at a location where the headquarters is out of a state that mandates IVF coverage and might therefore cover IVF.

If I wasn't willing to do either of those things, I'd look into either a loan from a family member or private financing, but I'd make sure to do some kind of shared risk or guarantee program.

Good luck.

gsancho · June 2014

For this first full IVF, we used a combination of savings and credit cards. If we have to do one more, we may do a loan. If that doesn't work, we will take a year off to save more while we consider DE.

TTCBabyJ · June 2014

We are actually thinking of doing IVF in Mexico. It is actually half the price of clinics in the US.

kushie77 · June 2014

When we were looking at IVF we were going to take a home equity line of credit, but not everyone owns their own home and has that luxury.

Resolve.org has a section on IVF grants and scholarships and financing options

https://www.resolve.org/family-building-options/insurance_coverage/infertility-treatment-grants-and-scholarships.html

StacyLH24 · June 2014

I put one of my student loans in forbearance and then we got a loan through my work credit union. Our RE's office offers financing, but the monthly payment was a bit more than what I felt comfortable taking on.

Pintobean39 · June 2014

I'm using credit cards. I have 1 credit card that I get awesome points on so we get to take a free vacation and what I couldn't pay off I transferred to a 0% credit card and I'll continue paying. My husband also has been working a lot of extra to help pay for this. I'm hoping to not have to dip in our savings.

ky29 · June 2014

DaydreamSam said:

We are also completely oop for IVF. We are doing a fundraiser through Deposit A Gift and Paypal and we have a zazzle shop and etsy store through which we sell products specifically to raise awareness about IF and the profits from which go straight to our IVF fund. It took a lot for us to swallow our pride and ask friends and family to help but we have no other choice. We tried Springstone Patient Financing and while they were super nice, we couldn't get approved because we are self employed. We are also seriously considering moving to Montana which is an IF coverage mandated state.

@DaydreamSam - I really like that I idea! I may look into something like that..

CarSaidYes · June 2014

We are not this far in the journey but my RE office recommends ARC for financing.

FutureMrsBaldwin2012 · June 2014

Thanks for all of the responses ladies. Our office does not have a payment plan, they suggested Spring Stone, which depending on credit scores could have up to a 25% interest rate (ouch!). I contacted my hospital's HR department this morning and we have something called a hardship account for employees. The person that I spoke with was not sure if we qualify so I have to set up a meeting to meet with the correct person. I know that they won't just give me $15,000 but I am interested to see what they will help with. DH would have a stroke if I suggested moving away from our family and friends so that isn't an option for us. I think I will start looking into out of state prices, for Ohio and Illinois as those would be driving distance for us. I have grandparents that I think would lend us the money, I am just very nervous about asking. DH hates borrowing money from people, he would rather take out a loan. My other thought would be to borrow from my retirement. I would pay the penalty and not pay it back though. I have heard that if you use it for medical purposes that you don't have to pay the penalty though, so I will have to call and ask about that. I am so hesitant to take out a bank loan just because if it didn't work, it would be VERY hard to make that payment every month for the next 5+ years. Sigh. Is 9 am too early for a glass of wine?

Pintobean39 · June 2014

CarSaidYes said:
We are not this far in the journey but my RE office recommends ARC for financing.

My clinic offers ARC too. I didn't get the warm a fuzzy about them. Since we were just paying for 1 cycle and our transfer was going to be later due to PGD testing they said I needed to pay another 3k for a fresh + frozen package even though I wasn't doing a fresh. My clinic isn't charging me for my transfer later down the road if we have good eggs. So going through them would have been more expensive. Also I could not for the life of me get an interest rate out of them without going through with the whole loan process and having a hard inquiry on my husbands credit score. They would only tell me from like 7-30% interest. My clinic told me to just pay for 1 cycle with them with the Fresh only and not mention PGD and they would make sure when FET came I didn't owe anymore. They didn't send my contract until the night before my money was due to my clinic and I didn't like some of the fine print. It limited the number of monitoring appts. I knew I'd go over their number because my RE monitored me a lot. When it came down to it the discount they gave was only like $60 for just a fresh and not worth the uncertainty because I didn't like the fine print.

It may be different depending on the clinic just read the fine print carefully.

sundaybrunch · June 2014

We aren't doing IVF yet but since we are OOP have definitely thought about how we'd pay for it if it comes to that. I was talking to my mom about it a few months back and out of the blue she told me she and my dad would loan us the money. Though a completely generous offer, I wasn't completely on board at first because I don't want to owe any family members money and it sort of feels weird borrowing money from your parents when you're in your mid-30s. In the end though that's the route we will take if we need to. We can't do a home equity loan (just did one for a large construction project) and I also don't want to dip into savings. I am sooo grateful to have wonderful parents.

ky29 · June 2014

@NariaDreaming - what do you sell in your etsy shop?

megwill126 · June 2014

We are using the infertilty grant. They needed both mine and DH's tax's from last year and base what you'll have to pay from that. Good luck!

Twinkie0612 · June 2014

We refinanced our house and used the equity to pay for IVF #1. We used the rest of our refinance money and dipped into our savings for IVF #2. IVF #3 we used savings and my ILs loaned us some money. We paid for our donor embryo FET with the money we got back from our taxes (we itemized our medical spending from last year). Our next treatment cycle won't be until November/December and we should be able to pay for it from savings as long as our testing with the reproductive immunologist isn't too expensive. After that we will have to take out some loans to pay for any more treatments.

TTCBabyJ · June 2014

@CaterinaC‌ do you happen to know the name of the low cost IVF clinic in LA....I just Google it but didn't find a definitive place. And when you say LA please tell me your talking about Los Angeles and not Louisiana.....thanks!

TTCBabyJ · June 2014

@CaterinaC‌ thank you very much!!

fjamil1 · June 2014

we are all OOP too. My insurance did cover the initial blood work, so saved like a bunch there. but all other is OOP. We wanted to get a loan, which has no interest for one year, so we can pay off in an year time. DH doesnt want to have to pay interest, for a good thing, and it is against our religion to borrow or lend with interest, so we are going to pay all cash, save my pay check for IVF, and use his income for our expenses, and such. We are going to an IVF clinic in Edison, NJ Center for Advanced Reproductive Medicine & Fertility and one cycle without meds is $6,300 including ICSI, and Assisted Hatching, and a refund cycle is $10,500 with 70% refund for one fresh cycle, and unlimited frozen cycles.

jencity9 · June 2014

We have some insurance coverage but were able to get a loan through DH's work credit union. I had suggested taking out of our 401 (k) but DH was super uncomfortable with that. We will be paying on this loan for 5 years... and yes it will be so awful if it doesn't work and we have to pay that!! Fortunately, the loan will be enough to pay for a couple IVF's and FETs if we go that far.

Want a personalized experience?

Paying for IVF

Re: Paying for IVF

Me 33, DH 37 -- TTC since Jan'12 -- Low AMH (0.78) & endo, SA w/ low motility
IUI's 1-3 = BFN, IVF converted to IUI 4/13 = BFN
IVF 1.2: 8R 6M 4F -- 2 blastocysts frozen, FET 8/15 = BFP!!
Beta #s = 445;1,098; 9,545 -- EDD 5/2 -- Team Pink!

March 2014 - RE appt.
April 2014- Saline sono all's good, terrible SA results - 8 sperm found all abnormal
May 2014- Fert Urology- Bilateral varicoceles, recommend Donor Sperm

12/2014- Surprise natural BFP EDD 7/31/15 Plan: Starting foster to adoption, natural cycles

Me: 26 (IC/PCOS-2000mg of Metformin daily)

DH: 27 (SA results were great minus the slightly low morphology)

Started dating DH in 2002 at 14 years old

Married on 03.01.2014

Officially TTC since April 2014

January 2013- Surprise BFP, m/c at 6 weeks, D&C 2 Weeks later

April 2014- First RE appointment

July 2014- IUI#1-Canx due to scar tissue and polyps. TI with the help of Ovidrel. BFN

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Want a personalized experience?

Paying for IVF

Re: Paying for IVF

Me 33, DH 37 -- TTC since Jan'12 -- Low AMH (0.78) & endo, SA w/ low motilityIUI's 1-3 = BFN, IVF converted to IUI 4/13 = BFNIVF 1.2: 8R 6M 4F -- 2 blastocysts frozen, FET 8/15 = BFP!!Beta #s = 445;1,098; 9,545 -- EDD 5/2 -- Team Pink!

March 2014 - RE appt. April 2014- Saline sono all's good, terrible SA results - 8 sperm found all abnormalMay 2014- Fert Urology- Bilateral varicoceles, recommend Donor Sperm

12/2014- Surprise natural BFP EDD 7/31/15 Plan: Starting foster to adoption, natural cycles

Me: 26 (IC/PCOS-2000mg of Metformin daily)

DH: 27 (SA results were great minus the slightly low morphology)

Started dating DH in 2002 at 14 years old

Married on 03.01.2014

Officially TTC since April 2014

January 2013- Surprise BFP, m/c at 6 weeks, D&C 2 Weeks later

April 2014- First RE appointment

July 2014- IUI#1-Canx due to scar tissue and polyps. TI with the help of Ovidrel. BFN

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Me 33, DH 37 -- TTC since Jan'12 -- Low AMH (0.78) & endo, SA w/ low motility
IUI's 1-3 = BFN, IVF converted to IUI 4/13 = BFN
IVF 1.2: 8R 6M 4F -- 2 blastocysts frozen, FET 8/15 = BFP!!
Beta #s = 445;1,098; 9,545 -- EDD 5/2 -- Team Pink!

March 2014 - RE appt.
April 2014- Saline sono all's good, terrible SA results - 8 sperm found all abnormal
May 2014- Fert Urology- Bilateral varicoceles, recommend Donor Sperm