Walter Reed IVF vs. Civilian IVF
lketchy
member
Last August, after a tube rupture from an ectopic pregnancy, my husband and I were told IVF is our only option to conceive. I have been researching the heck out of everything, signed up for IVF with a local civilian clinic, and now we have learned about IVF at Walter Reed.... The civilian clinic charges 12,900 for IVF with ICSI (As long as we get 4 blasts that make it to freeze stage, this includes everything for 4 tries except meds which are $3 to 5K). According to their website, Walter Reed charged $6197 in 2013; however, it seems as though there are a bunch of misc. charges such as admin fees, embryo & sperm freeze/storage, etc.
Does anyone have additional info on IVF at a military clinic such as Walter Reed? Fees, program, etc?? Online someone said it was like a "cattle call." But others have said it was great. We are really torn on which route to go. The civilian clinic is easier as it is close by, all of our documentation is there, and we know everyone already. The military clinic is a training hospital, the success rates are a bit lower, but would the $ savings might be worth giving it a shot? We want to make the best choice both financially and emotionally. Thanks in advance for any help.
Re: Walter Reed IVF vs. Civilian IVF
Our first one was in Oct and it did not work. But the REs regrouped, tweaked my protocol and we ended up with 4 embryos at the end of the 2nd IVF. We transferred 2, froze 2, and found out last week it worked! I'm 5 weeks right now. I'm so glad we gave it a go there, because we got 2 cycles out of the same price as the civilian RE.
Not sure how Walter Reed does it, but Madigan did all u/s, b/w and monitoring appts at the MTF on base, but outsourced the ER/ET and used a civilian REs offices for those procedures. So my military RE did the procedures, but used the civilians clinic/embryologist for ER/ET. My RE was telling me that the civilian embryologists they used are supposed to be some of the best in the state, which made me feel good about them taking care of our embryos. We have MFI, so we did IVF with ICSI for both cycles. We paid ~$8,500 for each IVF cycle.
I had heard that doing IVF at the military REs as being a cattle call, but I never got that vibe at Madigan. I loved both the REs I worked with at Madigan, but really loved the one we had this cycle. He would take the time to sit down with my chart and show me why he thought the 2nd cycle was going much better than the 1st. He even told me at ET, with how this cycle went, he would be really surprised if I didn't end up pregnant. And he was right. Obviously there never is a guarantee, but it made me feel good that he had that much confidence in this cycle.
If I can answer anything else, just tag me or quote this. I don't hang out here on this board, but know how important it was when we were trying to gather info about our options. Every little bit of info was welcome
Mirena removed 11/15, immediately started trying.
April 16: AMH 2.35, Normal all other labs, including sperm.
Aug 16: HSG normal. Saline sonogram showed likely polyp, but not optimal due to discomfort.
Sept 16: Hysteroscopy with light D&C for small polyps.
Sept 16: Notice of impending deployment for six months.
Sept 16: Femara round 1: D12 US, 28mm follicle, 8mm endometrium; D15 US, collapsed follicle, 5.5 mm endometrium
Oct 16: Femara round 2: D17 US, ovarian cyst consistent with ovulation, 5mm endometrium and cystic structure in the endometrium consistent with adenomyosis. Adenomyosis also present on US in July 16.
Oct 16: Deployment cancelled, likely next summer if not sooner.
Next up: Estrace D 5-12, Progesterone suppositories 3DPO
FSH/LH - 7.6/7.16
AMH - 0.867
IVF #1 - Scheduled for May 2017
You also need to pay in full what the estimated costs will be before enrolling in the IVF cycle. Once we were enrolled I had about a 2 month wait until we got a start date, which ended up being April 3rd. Prior to that I was on birth control pills for about 7 weeks. They give you a schedule- mostly an estimated schedule. My schedule ended up being entirely inaccurate because once I started using the injectable stimulation medications I progressed fast, so my appointments got shifted forward a couple of days. I had adjusted my work schedule based on the estimated appointment calendar, so that screwed up my work scheduled- but clearly IVF was waaaay more important and my employer just had to deal with it.
The costs to us were about 6K including IVF cycle and ICSI- we have unexplained infertility. The drugs are all covered by Tricare! We got the bill for the meds afterwards that Tricare paid and it was about 2K worth of meds!
The staff is very professional. The nursing staff is mostly good, very positive. They seem a bit overstretched. The Nurse Manager sometimes was poor with communication. I was sympathetic because she always looked tired during the IVF cycle, when they can have 90 patients going through IVF staggered throughout the month. I was a little frustrated at times with poor communication on their part, but for the most part, considering the significant discount compared to private fertility clinics, I was happy we went with Walter Reed. However, if we did not get pregnant as a result of the cycle, I may be singing a different tune.
One interesting thing is that with WR they will only transfer a single embryo if you are 37 or younger. They are more concerned about the increased costs and risk to the mother and fetuses with twin pregnancies, than increased rate of pregnancy with transferring 2 embryos. That frustrated me at first, but I did get pregnant, so I have a lot to be thankful for!
I'm 5 weeks 5 days pregnant and just got a new symptom today- nausea! Yay! We've been trying for a baby for so long I am embracing every wonderful-aweful stage about pregnancy!