My consultation outcome

[IWannaBeMommy]

We had the consultation yesterday at 3pm. Sitting in the waiting room was a lvery emoitinal for me, my eyes were so watery. Had a hard time trying to stop the tears. There were several woman in the waiting room that were pregnant. (IVF I assume). Didn't talk to any of them to find out, but was curios and wanted to.
Anyhow, when it was my turn to see the specialist for the first time. She was very friendly, understanding, and answered the questions I asked so I could understand. (Not the usual doctor language).
Here's what I found out. She said she only needs two things for IVF to work. 1. atleast one ovary and 2. the uterus. YEAH ! I have both !!!! At his point, hubby giggled a little "are you leaving something out?" LMAO.....

"yes and your sperm will play an important role as well" the Doc said.

I have a 60% chance of IVF working, 20% chance of twins (twins run on my fathers side of the family, forgot to tell her), and 10% chance of having another ectopic. However she feels that the ectopic may not happen at all. I'm so excited, relaxed, but still a little nervous of coarse.
We have decided and the doctor as well, to wait until Sept. to start my cycle. Reason for this is that is when my insurance will be effective. At the moment I have no insurance. My employer has offered insurance to me free of charge. However, that means no more bonuses except for christmas. I feel it is worth it though.
So I guess, I will be with the Sept. cycle buddies. Is there anyone yet??

[AMITHIS]

Those were excellent odds of success you were given! I don't blame you for wanting to wait until you have the insurance. Everything ends up being so expensive. Our insurance doesn't cover any infertility related treatments and I guess most companies don't unless you are lucky enough to live in one of the few states where it's mandated. I don't think Maine is one of those so you must have a great insurance plan!

Anyway, Sept. will be here before you know it. I wish you the best of luck!

Staci

[DebraP]

Hi (what can I call you?) IWannaBeMommy is so....impersonal!!

Yes I will be a September cycle buddy. AF should be around Aug 30 so I hope early Sept for a medicated FET.

Those were great odds your consultant gave you.....bless DH with his comments. It is pretty tough that their role isn't really that important.

Have a good summer,
Debra.

[IWannaBeMommy]

Amithis,
I'm not sure how much of IVF will be covered with my insurance here in Maine? However, my doctor did mention that there are ways of getting part of it covered. I believe everything except for the actual transfer is covered. She said the secretary has list of the "right" qustions to ask the insurance company. We are doing this with or without the coverage. Even if it means putting it all on credit cards and paying forever. It is all well worth it.

[AMITHIS]

Well, my insurance did at least cover the many tests which led up to the diagnosis. I was happy for that as I think that might have cost more than the IVF itself! I've been very worried about the cost of all this (doing a FET this time around and even that is quite expensive) but my DH says that it is worth it and tries to get me not to worry about it so much.
I suppose it will be worth it if it works. It's just the whole concept of paying thousands of dollars for nothing that scares me!

If your Dr.'s office gets the insurance company to cover everything except the ET, that won't be so bad. Even my insurance covered the drugs so you will probably be okay there as well.

Staci

[alicia]

Staci and others,

Did you know that in the US there is an "insurance" you can get for IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies? We don't use it because I am so messed up that my insurance covers most of it (not so uncommon in California).

I'm not sure of the details, but I think if you do 3 full IVF cycles and any FETs possible from frozen embryos and don't have a baby they pay you back your money.

http://www.fertilityusa.com/family_building/index.html

alicia

[AMITHIS]

Thanks Alicia. My clinic does offer a similar program through a company called Integramed. For a set rate (which was about two and a half times the cost of one IVF) they offered three tries and 80% of your money back if you weren't successful after three tries. When my DH and I did the math, it seemed like we wouldn't end up saving anything substantial unless we had to give it the 3 tries....at least that's the way this particular plan was structured. I know there are some better refund programs available in the U.S. but, unfortunately, not at my clinic. If we had been successful on the first try (and I guess we were overly optimistic that we would be) we would have paid much more doing the refund program than just paying the clinic directly. We ended up deciding to bet on ourselves to win instead of lose. To be honest, I don't think I would make it through 3 tries anyway. I've told DH and family that, if the frozen embryos don't work, that's the end of the line (whether I'll change my mind or not is a different story, of course, but I didn't want all of them pushing me).