The Real Cost Of IVF

Knottie34543584 · April 2017

Hello

I'm not sure this is allowed (so apologies in advance) or it has been posted about a lot before (I did search but couldn't find anything recent) but I am really interested at how much IVF costs in different parts around the world, it seems like such a (depressing and stressful) variation.

My first IVF cycle I spent approximately $200 on my injections, my scan appointments up until retrieval day were included in the fee that I paid on egg retrieval day. My first cycle was a bust, I didn't respond to the trigger so no eggs could be collected, and we still paid $7600 up front (we got back around $4000, but $1000 of our up front fee was to be admitted to the hospital because my private health insurance hadn't kicked in yet (12 month waiting period).

My second cycle we paid $7600 up front again, but got back around $5500 this time. I am scheduled for FET Thursday, which is $7000 up front I believe but we will get back around $6000 on this. My FET is medicated, and the tablets/pessaries cost me around $130 but if I fall pregnant they will be at a further cost of around $10 per day.

Sorry I hope this isn't prying, I just think it's very interesting how much these costs vary around the world (and how much this variation sucks)

Thanks girls and baby dust to all X

FuzzyDust · April 2017

@Knottie34543584 - where are you located?

I'm not sure how much FET will be, but I'm still waiting for all the bills to come in from my first IVF freeze-all cycle. Here is some estimation:

medication: $2,200
u/s + blood check-ups: $750*6 = $4,500
ER: ~$3,000
PGS testing for 3 embryos: $600
Embryology: ? - don't have the bill yet

So, the total is roughly $10K + whatever embryology dapartment will charge for the fertilization/growth/biopsy/freezing. And that's before we proceed to FET.

I'm in USA, West Coast.

FuzzyDust · April 2017

And to add to this - my insurance covers up to $15K lifetime total, but before starting IVF I only had maybe $8K left, so we're definitely totally OOP from now on

Knottie34543584 · April 2017

@FuzzyDust

Thank you so much for your response

It's such an expensive process isn't it! Are all those figures out of pocket? Or before you get money back from private health?

I estimate we have spent close to $7000 out of pocket and haven't made it to a transfer yet. I am in Australia

What is news with you? I haven't had a chance to catch up on some of the other threads yet x

JuliaGoolia719 · April 2017

We're in Kansas City, we paid our clinic over 14k for our egg retrieval/FET, PGS testing was $500 for 2 embryos, medications for the ER was over 5k and meds so far for the FET are over 2k, with more if the transfer works and I stay on meds for the first 9 weeks of pregnancy. We're all OOP, no insurance coverage for fertility treatments.

MrsJ2410 · April 2017

Im in NYC and looking at 13k for IVF and 5K for medication OOP as my insurance has no IF coverage. Plus all the 200-300$ testing visits I have been doing prior.

Knottie34543584 · April 2017

@JuliaGoolia719 @MrsJ2410 Wow that is insane! It's crazy how expensive it is, I mean you wouldn't put a price on having a baby but if only it was a bit more manageable financially xxx

ttc_ivf · April 2017

Hi! I'm in California. My insurance doesn't cover treatment or medication.

Ivf- 15k doesn't include ICSI, FET or assisted hatching

Meds- between $4000-7000.

Plus all the other testing. Semen analysis, hormone testing, mock embryo and the list goes on. I wish all insurance covered infertility treatment.

FuzzyDust · April 2017

All the initial testing + one cancelled IUI cycle ate up half of my $15K lifetime insurance allowance.

For IVF cycle in March, we had to pay OOP for the meds - $2.2K (new year, high deductibles plan), for the PGS test - $600, and I just got a call from the surgery department that we have about $1K co-pay bill. Which makes it almost $4k out of pocket so far (and who knows if we get another bill from embryology too). I assume the rest was covered by insurance, but I won't know for sure until we get all the bills in mail.

This process is way expensive.... I don't understand how a 15 minutes u/s is $500, even if it requires a review later on. And the meds - I don't know how the pharmacist managed to keep straight face when she told me total due...

artemis618 · April 2017

All of this is just mind boggling. I have a little bit not totally paid attention since I've been lucky enough to have some insurance coverage for two cycles, but I should definitely start researching as if we decide to proceed with more cycles, we'll be all OOP.

I just wanted to whine that PGS (not covered by insurance) for us (had we had anything to test) would have been $3950 (I think this includes biopsy) for 1-8 embryos (my AFC was only 8 this round so we're not getting 8 embryos to day 5 to test). Last time they even took the payment in advance and I had to request a refund

. So if we have one this time, we could pay the $3950 to test, and could test up to 7 more if we get them in subsequent cycles, but we'd probably want to switch shops/labs for additional cycles. So the "piece rate" for PGS seems much more fair.

(in Los Angeles here)

Edit: I was just going through my pile of IVF-related papers trying to get records ready for a prospective newish RE, and realized that the lab charges $2250 for biopsy/handling/whatever, and then the charge work was out to an additional $200/embryo, but I get to pay for eight regardless of how many we have (unless zero again), but can apply it to others should I get any from another cycle there (which is not the plan since meeting with newish RE). So that's $3850 - I was mistaken.

cashewchicken · April 2017

IVF is expensive. I've paid almost everything out of pocket, as our insurance doesn't cover fertility treatments (covered diagnostics though).

My clinic has a bundle discount for IVF. If you just get 1 cycle, then it's about 13K, I believe. If you get two cycles, then it's about 20K. For 20K, you get blood work, ultrasound, egg retrieval, embryologist fee, and transfer(s). PGS testing, ICSI, and other services like hatching and sperm banking are extra. Meds are also extra, but I got lucky with meds, as my insurance covered medicine for the first two cycles, which saved me about 5K. This is my third cycle and my insurance denied coverage for follistim, so now I have to pay that out of pocket.

mc4dj13 · April 2017

California OOP here!

Last year we spent $9K alone just for:

2 mock cycles (medicine included - estradiol, entometrin)
1 D&C outpatient surgery
12 Ultrasounds

This year we have spent:

$16k for Donor Egg Bank USA. This plan includes the eggs, labwork, monitoring ultrasounds, and the actual transfer
Medicine for 1 DEIVF cycle - $339
Genetic testing for my husband- $400

Angelaag · April 2017

Florida here. We spent $4,200 for meds. My RE has a package of $16,000 that covers start to finish FET with PGS. We paid $900 for 5 blasts tested. And about $400 for FET meds. All OOP! No insurance coverage.

immiet · April 2017

Texas here. My insurance pays $10,000 for medical for infertility services, but can go up to $30,000 for a lifetime if you use one of the "Centers of Excellence" clinics they want you to use, with $10,000 max lifetime of medications. My deductible is $2750 and we pay 20% after the deductible is met. In 2014, we had 2 IUI cycles and one IVF cycle that resulted in a beautiful baby using one of the preferred clinics my insurance wants us to use. We maxed out on medication benefits so I had to pay out of pocket about $1000 on medications for that cycle. (I found out when you pay out of pocket or the insurance pays, the insurance prices were almost doubled to what we paid out of pocket for the same medication, which is ridiculous. So for the same medication you may be charged one fee out of pocket but when they submit a claim, it may be charged almost three times as much to the insurance co. That's so unethical, in my opinion.) I ended up paying roughly another $4000 for the doctor's portion.

This last failed IVF cycle we tried that was cancelled towards the end, this Wednesday actually, I paid $4500 in medications (the exact same meds that would have cost more than doubled if insurance was billed...really WTF kinda thing to me.) We paid the doctor and clinic fees another $4500, roughly, that can be transferred to another cycle attempt. So, $4500 for meds down the drain for an attempted cycle.

rainbowwishes5 · April 2017

No idea. I think we are $30-40k in already. It's like just take my money please.

cmiller73 · April 2017

@rainbowwishes5 I'm right about there too.... In NH, insurance out of TX, all OOP. (and that is just for two IVF ER rounds, not including the PGS or FET to happen at a later time....) Thankfully I had a great bonus this year.

[Deleted User] · April 2017

This is a terrible topic but definitely important, and Im glad we can discuss it openly here. :)

It makes me so sad tho. DH is very much concerned about the costs piling up when we're supposed to be getting ramped up, financially as newlyweds - not the other way around. And he's totally right. It's been a couple grand each already so far on all the Napro appts, testing, u/s etc. which seems like nothing compared to what's coming... Finally we are starting to get closer to treatment...

The doctor already told us his retrieval will be $5,500. My first RE consult coming up on Wednesday will be $450. Hopefully after that we'll know more of what we're getting ourselves into with the costs. We are 100% OOP and will also need ICSI if the retrieval is a success. Not sure about PGS tho since I've never had a loss and his genetic tests all came back normal... that may also depend on how many embies we get? I dunno. I get nauseous just thinking about it.

@rainbowwishes5. That figure is so scary... (((hugs)))

PoeMasque · April 2017

I'm in Oregon and we paid:

$560 Initial RE consult
~$300 Pre-IVF testing (would have been more like $2000 but I had most testing done before IVF covered at 100% by insurance)
$9500 for monitoring, ER, ICSI, and ET
$2400 meds
$2600 PGS (up to 8 embryos)
$1500 embryologist fee

we didn't end up doing PGS because we only had two embryos at day 5. My insurance ended up paying for half of the initial consult, but the rest is OOP.

If the fresh transfer doesn't work our clinic does FET for $1500. If you are just doing FET to have another child it's $4000.

Remember that any medical expenses over 10% of your income are tax deductible.

prudence9-2 · April 2017

Like @immiet mentioned, when clinics charge the insurance it is about double the amount than when they charge a patient who pays OOP. For my IVF back in November if I let the insurance pay, I would have been out of my lifetime benefit and still owe almost as much as I would have if I paid OOP. So I paid OOP close to $20k which included, IVF, ICSI, assisted hatching and PGS. I let the insurance pay for the meds which were about $8k.

FET and FET meds are much cheaper. So I let the insurance pay for it when I had FET back in January. They just billed the insurance about a week ago. So I'm still not sure how much it was. But my guess around $4-6k for FET and about $1k for meds (but hasn't seen the charges yet. So I have no clue).

I live in California.

prudence9-2 · April 2017

@cmiller73 @rainbowwishes5 I'm right about there too... But I try not to add up what I paid so far as it's too depressing.

rainbowwishes5 · April 2017

@Prudence9 don't I know it

if I end up surrogate or DE route in looking at a total of $90k bye bye

prudence9-2 · April 2017

@rainbowwishes5 I do know though, that once I have a baby, all this money and sticking needles everywhere will not matter anymore.

cashewchicken · April 2017

@rainbowwishes5 and @Prudence9- Including 6xIUIs, 3xIVFs, 1xPGS, 2xICSIs, and meds, I've so far paid close to 50K. It's a lot of money but once we have a kid, it'll be all worth it. Well, at least that's what my husband and I tell each other every time we write a check...

prudence9-2 · April 2017

@cashewchicken yeah, that's what I tell myself too!

And now that I think about it, the ~$20k that I paid for IVF didn't include the anesthesiologist, that was about $1500 and I billed it to the insurance.

rayoflight80 · April 2017

I live in Toronto. In Ontario, one round of IVF is covered (except the meds). We've been super lucky because all the tests are covered and I was able to get the meds covered on my insurance (which I no longer have). If you opt for a funded round, the wait time is now two years (we only waited a year because we got on the waiting list when the program started).

DH's retrieval surgery (microtese) cost us $2k OOP (it would have been more but OHIP, which is universal healthcare, covered the rest). Some of the tests we did before starting everything cost in the neighbourhood of $1000.

Our round was free but we paid an administrative fee of $350. The meds were (luckily) covered by my insurance and they came to $3k.

We also paid $1500 for backup donor sperm (which we're now using for IUI).

The IUI we're doing now was $750 for the (above) sperm and $500 for the procedeure. The meds were about $200.

Keeping DH's sperm frozen is $500 a year.

So we've only spent $6000 so far, which is pretty good.

If we decide to go back to a round of IVF after 3 unsuccessful IUIs, we'd use donor sperm+DH's sperm and we'd have to pay the full cost.

So it would be:

$3000 for meds
$8500 for the cycle
$2300 for ICSI with microtese sperm
$1000 to prepare microtese sperm and donor sperm
$750 for donor sperm

($15550)

KLake42 · April 2017

An IVF fresh cycle is about $10k in Atlanta, not including meds (which run $6k or so).

Including acupuncture, we claimed $60k in med expenses in 2015 for 7 IUIs and the first IVF cycle. We had $20k last year, which encompassed medications for two IVF cycles, and a handful of ultrasounds. My first two cycles were cancelled for poor response, so we got most of the money applied to the next cycle, minus the ultrasounds and blood work. I'm in the middle of a cycle now, with meds paid for in December (cycle was postponed because of a cyst).

No insurance coverage. We're dual income, living in the income of one of us, applying the rest to fertility. We share one old paid-for car, and live in a house so small, we make fun of tiny house fetishists.

We still take vacations, though. We put everything on a miles rewards card, so we've been able to fly for free a lot! Hey, silver lining.

Oh, but we also have had to pay for sperm. Anonymous donor sperm runs about $800 a vial, plus $300 shipping. Known donor sperm was around $3000 for testing and collection, but we've got 11 vials now. But we also paid 6 months of waiting for it (stupid quarantine).

prudence9-2 · April 2017

@KLake42 what is a known donor? Someone you actually know? I went with open donor which means when the baby turns 18 y/o they can try and contact the donor once. It was more expensive than anonymous donor and with the shipping I paid about $10k for 9 vials. I still have 1 vial that I haven't used and now I'm paying for the clinic to keep it. But in 6 months I'll have to pay for them to keep in for another year.... the expenses are endless

mandasd · April 2017

I'm in California and insurance through my work did not cover. My husband is retired military so I switched to Tricare and was accepted into the military IVF program, offered at only 5 military hospitals in the US. IVF cost $3950 which included all monitoring, testing, meds, retrieval, embryology with ICSI, and transfer. My first IVF cycle I did not even make it to retrieval so I was refunded 100%. 2nd round I made it to retrieval but got no eggs so they refunded me $2950. They also have a donor program which will cost about $16k but I have to find a military dependent to cycle at my clinic. I also get a discount if I use a frozen bank, so that will also be $16-17k. I'm shooting for a fresh donor and using the agency that works with my clinic but not having very good luck finding a suitable match. All said and done, I still consider myself extremely lucky to have these services through the military and my parents offered to pay for donor cycle, again, so thankful! I encourage any military couple to look into these programs in San Diego, DC, Washington, Hawaii, or Texas.

KLake42 · April 2017

@Prudence9 Yes, by known donor, I mean someone in our lives, to whom we will be eternally grateful, and who we trust implicitly. We had to work up a legal contract, but didn't have to pay an attorney because I'm a lawyer (at least we could do something DIY). And we paid for his blood tests, and for all the collections at the bank near him, and reimbursed him for gas expenses (bless him, he had to drive an hour each way). But now the sperm is ours, and the only cost is storage and shipping.

Since he's not an intimate partner, the FDA imposes a 6 month quarantine. So, he had an HIV test at the start, made his donations, and then had to wait 6 months and get another HIV test before they could release the sperm to us. We could have avoided the quarantine if we'd told everyone that we were in an intimate polyamorous relationship with him (and I've known people who have done that), but it would have been a little weird for us to pretend.

One thing I like about the arrangement is that if this works, then when it comes time to explain to the kid about the birds and the bees, we can explain-- This is how genetics works (sciencey model of DNA will be involved), and your parents wanted to bring you into the world so much, and your uncle who loves you wanted to help make that happen, so we all went to these really smart doctors, and he donated his genetics, and so that's why this weird-thing-you-do is so similar to the weird-thing-he-does, but he's not your dad, he's your uncle who loves you.

We were ready to talk about anonymous donors if needed, when we were trying with my eggs. Then, we opted for an open donor, too, since we wanted the kid to have access to information. There are communities of donor kids out there, and a lot of them seem to want more transparency and access to info, so we wanted to provide that.

(We couldn't use our known donor with my eggs, because he's my brother. But he's a perfect donor when using my wife's eggs.)

If this strategy doesn't work, we're open to donor eggs or even donor embryos. So we could come back to the anonymous/open donor conversation again. It seems like it's easier to find open sperm donors than open egg or embryo donors.

prudence9-2 · April 2017

@KLake42 omg I love the birds and the bees story!!

6 months sounds like a very long wait but I totally get why you wouldn't lie about something like that.

The reason I went for an open donor is that my child will have the option to find out who was the donor when he/she is 18 y/o.

So has your wife started the IVF cycle?

KLake42 · April 2017

@Prudence9 Yep! She's been stimming, and we're expecting to trigger either tonight or tomorrow, depending on her blood work this morning.

prudence9-2 · April 2017

@KLake42 good luck!!! Are you planning to have a fresh transfer? Or test and do a FET?

fivetimesnoluck · April 2017

I am in Georgia (not Atlanta) and am paying the following out of pocket for a frozen (anonymous) donor egg cycle:

Lot of six frozen donor eggs = $11,000
Transport from bank to clinic = $750
Thaw, fertilization (ICSI and assisted hatching included for up to 10 eggs) = $3,800
Transfer = $1,905
Freezing and Storage of additional embryos = $900
Meds (Progesterone in Oil, Medrol, Doxycycline, & Estrace - mostly covered by insurance) = $100

Add in the monitoring ultrasound, SA, and blood work and it's right at or under $19,000.

I never thought I would go this far down the road of treatment, but here we are.

KLake42 · April 2017

@Prudence9 We're going to gamble on a fresh transfer of up to two embryos, and if we have any left over, test and freeze. Thanks!

prudence9-2 · April 2017

@KLake42 that's great! Good luck!!!

SP128 · April 2017

Hi ladies. This is my first time posting on this board. I've been lurking a little.
We are just starting this process.

Luckily we have fertility coverage on our insurance. Here is what things cost out of pocket for us so. We are in Boston.

Copays $60
pgs - $3300 for 7-8 embryos. Clinic said we would have to pay $3300 up front. If we have less than 7 embryos we have a credit on the account. If we have more we would pay per embryo. Clinic said that there is a cap of I think $4600. Maybe I'll be a super producer and we can capitalize on that cap.

Storage of frozen embryos - $780/year.

This is what I know so far.

Also, at my clinic they give veterans and their spouses 25% off out of pocket expenses. They told me that pgs doesn't count bc they use another lab for it.
This was something I saw on their website and I outwardly asked when I spoke with the financial coordinator. The discount wasn't exactly in bold print on the website and I'm not sure they would've given me a heads up.

AlohaKumu · April 2017

Thankfully, insurance covers all testing and meds for both of us.

- A complete IVF cycle with ICSI (includes anesthesia, oocyte retrieval, all embryology, assisted hatching, lab procedures, and the embryo transfer performed in the procedure room) is about $5800.
- PGS for 8 embryos (shipping included) is normally over $5200, but we get a "discount" of $2500. (I'm not sure if this rate changes if we have more/fewer than 8 or if it's a flat fee.)
-I also have the option to store any number of embryos/eggs for a year for $1600.
- FET is $1900, if needed.

ETA FET information

immiet · April 2017

Our next cycle, this will be the breakdown of prices:

cetrotide (6 days): $313
36 vials of menopur: $2988
900ml of gonal f, 3 qty: $2665
total of $5966

i have not picked up my prescription for estrace so not factoring that in yet.

On a whim, I called Caremark to see what their prices were if I submitted through insurance. The same amount of menopur was almost $6000 and the cetrotide was over $1200. Ridiculous how much they increase everything. Doesn't seem legal.

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