Cost of Fertility Treatments

Cost of Fertility Treatments

The emotional impact of infertility is only worsened by the financial impact infertility can entail. The cost of fertility treatments more often than not would send me into a fit of rage. The fact that I had to pay money to attempt to achieve what other normal couples could achieve for free seemed downright not fair. When I underwent treatments, I would often secretly hope for twins or even triplets with the logic that I would be getting two or three babies for the price of one. Claim Your 20 Free Pregnancy Tests – Click Here

Clomid

Let’s start at the beginning, when I first suspected that something might be wrong with me or my husband, I brought it up to my regular OBgyn. He prescribed Clomid, a fertility drug that induces ovulation. My doctor was kind enough to bill it so that it looked like I was having problems with my menstrual cycle and not for fertility. By doing this, my insurance picked up a portion of the drug cost (I was very fortunate) and we paid roughly $20.00 a month for Clomid. I did 3 months of Clomid with “natural cycles” (meaning no IUI procedure). That’s $60.00. After each failed cycle, I was required to take a pregnancy test before I started the Clomid again regardless if I got a period (so many women mistake early pregnancy bleeding as a period). A pregnancy test averages $20.00. Sometimes two tests come in a pack. Three months of tests, that equals $40.00 for 3 months of pregnancy tests. So three months of trying to conceive with just Clomid and no procedures costs us $100.00. It’s fair to say that $100.00 for three months of trying to get pregnant in the world of infertility treatments is dirt cheap. But it’s also only the beginning.

Intrauterine insemination or (IUI)

After the three months of natural cycles with Clomid, my regular OBGyn had to refer us to a fertility specialist. The consultation (in other words just to talk to the man) was roughly $200.00. We did 2 IUI’s (in-uterine insemination). They were $600 a piece. So with the consultation, the cost of drugs ($20 per month in Clomid and $80 per month in Ovidrel) we paid a total of $1400 for only 2 IUI procedures. I had to sign my life away prior to each insemination saying that I understood that the treatment may fail or the pregnancy could in end miscarriage. Our doctor would only allow three tries with IUI’s before moving onto IVF because if the IUI’s were going to work, then they would work within three tries.

Natural way

We never made it to IVF. We never even made it to our third try with the IUI’s. The IUI’s alone were too expensive for us and neither one of us could justify a $600.00 gamble because, that is exactly what it felt like. My husband’s sperm count was low. They “washed” his sperm and it was only yielding about 1 million good swimmers. Sperm is considered low if it is below 15 million. I toyed with the idea of asking our doctor if we could try donor sperm. If we had decided to go that route it would have cost us $700.00 for one vial of sperm from a man that speaks three languages and looks like Ryan Philippe. Fourteen Hundred dollars and two IUI’s later, we decided to just try “naturally” with no medications. I purchased the ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor that shows the most fertile days in a cycle. This set me back $150.00.

In vitro fertilization or (IVF)

If we had decided to try IVF, the cost of one round of IVF is roughly $12,000. If a couple tries IVF 3 times its $36,000. The good thing about IVF is that the rate of success are higher. However the procedure is not only more expensive than IUI but it is also more invasive leading to more time off of work. The cost of IVF increases significantly if donor eggs are used.

Adoption and surrogacy

To top it all off, after a couple has wiped their bank account clean with fertility treatments, if they all fail, the only thing truly left are adoption and surrogacy (assuming the woman has healthy eggs). The average adoption runs anywhere from $2,000 to $30,000 if you go internationally. And surrogacy ranges between $20,000-$40,000.

Our Infertility journey in numbers? 4 years, 2 IUI’s, 3 months of Clomid and $1,650 dollars. We were lucky and were finally blessed with a “free” baby before we had completely given up.

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