cost sharing?

amybbc · Post by **amybbc** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:57 pm

I am fairly new to this site and I am just starting the process as soon. I am really struggling with something and was hoping to get the opions of you girls. My husband and I have no insurance coverage for IVF. So we are paying out of pocket. The clinic that we go to has a cost sharing program that cost 20,000 you get three ivf and subsequent fets. The thing is we have enough saved to do one cycle in our savings account. But if we would buy the cost sharing program we would have to finance 10,000 and that would strectch us very thin as far as income and all the other bills we have. We are still very young and the doctor said we have a really good chance of this working but nothing is guarenteed. So we take a leap of faith and hope that the first try works. Or take a loan that we could barely afford. I quess we know that if atleast we take a loan we will get three trys, but especially if we ended up with twins we would be putting ourselves in a tight spot. I am just so confused. I quess I would like to know if any of you had to make a desicion like this or what any bodys opinion is.
Thanks so much
Amy

kellym · Post by **kellym** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:25 pm

That is a very hard decision to make. To help make your decision you could consider the following...

Has your doctor told you what your ovarian reserve is? In case you don't know, that is when they count the resting follicles in your ovaries (before stimulation). That will at least give you some idea what your chances are for egg production with stimulation. If you have plenty of resting follicles then you are more likely to respond well to the drugs during your stimulation. I would definitely want to know that before I made this decision. If they come back and tell you that your ovarian reserve is low then you might want to consider buying the cost sharing option. Given your age, your ovarian reserve should be fine.

The other thing you could do is assess the number of follicles that are developing during your stimulation and cancel the cycle if you don't get a lot before the ER stage.

Good luck!

kholtan · Post by **kholtan** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:42 pm

I was in a situation somewhat like yours. Our clinic was 18K for one round but 30k for the guarenteed program. We knew what our problems were and it looked like everything was in our favor and our RE said he wouldn't suggest the 30k program since we had great odds. We followed his advice and are now pg w/ twins on round one.
We consulted w/ our RE and felt confident with his advice. It was scary though!!!! It's not an easy choice and money unfortunately does come into play. Good luck with your choice and I'm sure many of these women will have great advice for you as well.
Take care and Best wishes!
Kimberly

amybbc · Post by **amybbc** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:29 pm

First congradulations on your twins, that is so awesome. Thanks for the advice. It makes me feel better knowing that some one else had to make that desicion and it worked. When we first talked about this stuff a few months back we had thought we made up our minds on just going for it once.
But when we went to our appointment everything started to seem so real, and we just want a baby so bad. We would do anything to get it, but we really need to look at in a realistic sense too, because we don't want to risk too much. I quess our roller coaster ride starts here, kinda excited but also very scary.
Thanks Again
Amy

marika76 · Post by **marika76** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:09 am

Hi and welcome,
I just wanted to let you know that we were kinda in the same boat as you guys. I am 30 hubby is 31. We were totally male factor. My RE could not find anything wrong with me. My husband had surgery as a child due to an undescended testicle and this was our problem. Due to the damage that was done, his count was low and also had some motility and other issues. After a long debate and really knowing nothing about all of this fertility stuff, we decided it was worth a go. We tried 4 IUI with no success! The count started out at 15 million (which meant it might work) so we were thrilled and it just got lower with each try. Like you, we did not have any insurance coverage and made up our mind that we could try IVF but would only be able to afford one go at it... Deep down this made me nervous cause we wanted a baby so badly also but we could not afford to go through this more than once. The RE did a special semen analysis on my hubby and she encouraged us to go through with the ICSI to improve our fertilization rate. We decided not to do any share cost or anything and just go through with it! It worked on the first try. I am now 23 weeks pregnant with twin boys. We put back two embryos and we still have 6 frozen embryos. All of our embryos were blastocysts (which basically means high grade). I just kept telling myself that I had to do this at least once or we would never know if it would have worked. I know it does not work for everyone but depending on your problem, many people have children by this. Keep your head up and good luck! We probably spent close to 30 thousand dollars but now that I am pregnant with twins.. we look at it as getting 2 babies for the price of 1!! LOL, Once I found out it worked, we were in shock and could not believe it at first... Keep praying and let me know how things go. If you decide to do this, let me know what kind of meds u need... I have lots of extra I am willing to sell and some things that I may just give... Good Luck! --Marika

amybbc · Post by **amybbc** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 1:59 pm

Congratulations on your twins also. After lots of thought we have decided to just go for it once. Now that I have made up my mind I can just have faith that this will work. Your story seems so much like mine, so it gives me alot of hope for this cycle. We will be starting the pre testing next week and if everything checks out we will be gearing up for a late september transfer. I am not sure what kind of meds I will need yet but will probably find out soon enough. Thanks for all the stories.
Amy

shanbeanie · Post by **shanbeanie** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 6:11 pm

Hello,
I just wanted to share my story with you. DH and I are fairly young (DH 35, me 33) We chose to do a share risk venture with our clinic, only they do it 6 times for 20k, or 100% refund................we just finished failed 5th attempt, and will start 6th in August. We have had incredible qlty embryos and no male factor problems. (I have no fallopian tubes) We were told in beginning by Re that we should have no problems, and here we are going into our fifth cycle. so,,,,,,,,,,,the 20k has literally saved us 10's of thousands of dollars, when you consider average cost is 10-15k per cycle. We are from PA as well, and have no coverage. Just remember that no one goes into this thinking that it will take more than once, and you just never know...............we had to remortgage our home for the $$ but like I said, as of right now we would have been looking at 50K plus cost of meds had we not chose to do the shared risk..............it's a hard decision, but I would do it if I were you.

LisaPa · Post by **LisaPa** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:07 pm

Hi amy,

I am also in Pa northampton county. we have male factor as well. we are doing our first round of IVF/ICSI i just started my stims tonight. My re offers a plan as well I paid 20,000. for 3 rounds of ivf If it should work the first round we are given 10,000. back see if your RE offers a plan like that this way even if you are financing you could always pay it back if it works 1st try(hopefully it will). And in the event that it doesent you are paid for round 2 and 3. Good luck either way.

Betty ICSI · Post by **Betty ICSI** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:50 pm

Hi Ammy,

Here is my story. We had our first ICSI last Jan-Feb. Our insurance did not cover it. Plus our clinic does not have any sharing risk program. So we paid all cash. It costed us over 30K, although we knew the exact problem of our infertility (male factor) and we did not hany any extras. Our doc also said that we have a good chance to get pregnant!!!

Well, I got pregnant but miscarried on week 6. Now since we do not have any frozen embryos left from our first cycle we have to start all over. It means we need to have another 30K+.

Now we are looking at possibility to have our ICSI in Eastern Europe or Middle East cause it will cost us a fraction of what we paid here. And that fraction will include the airline ticket and accommodation.

Like LisaPA suggested see whether the sharing program of your clinic offers some refund if your 1st cycle works (hopefully it does!).

Marika - Congratulations with twins!!!!

Good luck to all of you, Ladies!

Betty

cost sharing?

cost sharing?

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