Hello, welcome!
Okay so today is kind of a spontaneous...ish sort of video.
Um, I've seen a few types of videos like this before talking about what are the cost of IVF.
Now I'm not gonna give you like actual specifics on every single cost that we've had,
just cause I don't think getting an exact number is the important part of this.
I think what's important is to kind of give a monetary cost
and then the other cost involved as well, because it's a lot.
Okay so first I want to discuss more of the monetary cost of IVF.
Now this varies greatly... just it varies a lot depending.
So our number is not necessarily gonna see be the same as your number.
So just kind of keep that in mind.
Um one thing I want to mention to related what the cost is.
I will say what we actually paid out of pocket and then what other people paid,
because we were very, very lucky and somebody helped us with a good amount of our IVF cost.
We didn't have insurance coverage. So we had somebody willing to help out
So I will mention that as well.
Okay, sorry about the difference in shirt and hair looks a little different.
I needed to refilm this part because when I filmed it originally, the other part of the video,
I made some mistakes with the finances. So I'm just gonna redo it.
So I wanted to talk discuss the cost of IVF.
Now, as I mentioned, a lot of the money that we were using for IVF was donated to us.
We're very fortunate that most of our costs were donated because our insurance didn't cover it.
But I wanted to say IVF cost varies a lot.
Some people's insurance you know won't cover
the procedure of IVF itself, but it'll cover things like some of the surgeries,
blood work, doctor's visits, those sort of things. Meaning they only have to do co-pays for that,
which reduces the costs. Other people don't, then they have to pay for every single thing.
Which increase the cost a lot more.
Some people don't need a lot of surgical things, some people do, some people don't.
Some people need a lot of tests, some don't.
Some people use donor sperm and some don't.
So again the cost varies quite a bit, but I will tell you how much
we spent/how much we were given. Now, I'll explain about the costs.
First things first, we are a two female couple and we're not using a known donor
which means we needed to use donor sperm
and we actually had purchased that quite a long time ago.
So it's not really considered a cost for us right now because we already paid that.
But if you're curious, I would say the average price nowadays is...
probably I'd say 700 to 900 dollars per vial. Typically, if IVF is used,
then you just need one per, you know, egg retrieval. So let's just say that's around $900.
I don't know... plus you have to pay for the shipping which is another $300. So let's just say $1,200.
So that's the sperm part of it
and then the next thing you have are again,
really depends on the cost. You might only have to do copays.
Then it's gonna be less, but if you have to pay for each individual thing, I can't really give you a cost for that.
I will include a video from I think her name is Chelsea. I'm pretty sure that's how you spell it.
She went through and had to pay I'm pretty sure for each individual thing.
I don't think her insurance covered anything. So she might have more information there
and I'll link that down below.
Okay so as I was mentioning,
for us we just paid co-pays. We paid for vitamins, sperm, shipping.
All of those things together I think were around... sorry I'm looking at my phone... $1,691.30.
So I think that's kind of an approximate amount. That's what we paid out of pocket.
We were not given that money.
So again there's like co-pays, we had vitamins before we tried,
you know the sperm shipment. It didn't include the sperm itself.
I did not put that $900 on there. So if you add in the sperm then it's
whatever that $900 plus that amount is. So there, that's what we paid.
Then you had the IVF package itself.
Now, if insurance pays, that's totally different. But with our clinic ,
which was Strong Fertility, that one had three different packages and I will include those here.
I'll have to find that information because it's actually old information now.
But there's three different packages. One was one egg retrieval, two transfers. Two, two egg retrievals,
I think still two transfers and the third one I honestly can't remember.
I'm assuming it's three egg retrievals and probably two transfers. I don't know.
But we decided to pick the first one, one egg retrieval, two transfers
because we thought that Jenna would respond well... which she didn't.
She didn't respond well. But anyways that's what we decided.
So cost $6,500.
So in total with a few other costs on top of that that package was $6,852.50.
So that's the amount that was donated to us but we paid that, so about $6,800.
So we got one egg retrieval and up to two transfers if necessary. Luckily we are pregnant.
We got pregnant with the first transfer. We didn't need a second one.
Then we had the cost of medication which again this varies quite a bit if you're
very, you know fortunate, you don't need... if you don't have a lot of fertility problems,
they'll put you on a low amount. If you have severe infertility problems,
then you're gonna have quite a lot of costs. I've seen a range anywhere from say
$3,000 to $10,000 for medication. It is quite the range.
Our cost was approximately $3,600 and again that amount was given to us.
But $3,600 for Jenna's medications.
For IVF now because, we did our IVF which is reciprocal... I think that's the sign...
reciprocal IVF, that means that Jenna had the egg retrieval.
They made an embryo and then and put that into me. My medication a little bit cheaper.
I don't remember the exact amount, but I'm pretty sure that's included in the $1691.
So that was included, but the total that we spent approximately is here
and again most of that amount was donated to us.
But that is the total we would have paid if we had to pay everything ourselves without insurance.
So let me explain about the medication cost.
I just want to say even if you are told...
that you know your egg amount... everything looks really great,
don't always believe that.
Now the reason I'm saying that is because we decided, like I mentioned,
on the first IVF package... the $6,500 one egg retrieval, two transfers
and the reason why is the doctor said that Jenna had a high antral follicle count.
Which means they think that she would make quite a few eggs.
So that means we should get a lot of embryos.
So everything up until the retrieval, she had about 15 eggs.
Which is a really good amount.
Then the day.. well it was really two days before we went ahead and did the trigger shot.
Now, our doctor was concerned about I think it's OHSS which I'll put what that is here
and that means she was concerned Jenna would get sick.
So she gave her a low dose trigger and then she had blood work done.
They said "no no, oh I'm sorry, she needs to have more".
So we gave her another shot and then the day of her egg retrieval...
let's just say she has a lot of issues with getting IVs
and it's almost impossible to get an IV into her
and it took them over an hour and a half to get an IV
and we actually almost missed the window time frame to retrieve her eggs.
By the end we only got I believe it was nine (eggs) and only seven could be fertilized
and by the end we got one embryo, just one.
I mean again we are very fortunate
that I have gotten pregnant and everything seems to going okay.
So far as a filming the second part, I'm almost 25 weeks, but in the back of my mind
I wish we would have picked the second package to get two egg retrievals.
Because you know since this happened it's almost like we could have done a redo
and possibly have gotten more embryos.
Um you know we would had to use another vial of sperm but that's okay.
You know, but now we have to depend on either saving up again our money
or hopefully insurance will cover that next year.
But again there's a lot of things related with insurance coverage.
So I would say the financial part, yes it can be very expensive and very draining financially,
and then of course on your mental health.
So that's more the financial part. So now I'm going to transfer back to the old video
and talk about the mental and physical part which is worse.
Okay, so now I'm going to discuss the other part of IVF
which are the other cost and that is physical and mental and that's quite a bit.
You know, especially because for the two of us we started thinking you know
everything is gonna work out perfectly. We're gonna get a good amount of embryos out of it.
We can store them for later, which you know currently we're... what I'm 32?
Yes oh my gosh... I don't... I am 32.
Um and so this is our second child... a second pregnancy now.
But we still are considering having more kids. Maybe you know, we're not a hundred percent decided on that,
but we're still considering it and Jenna herself is already 32 as well.
So you know the older you are, especially related to fertility,
it really impacts your chance. You know once you hit 35 your fertility just drops
and I'm not trying to scare you, any of you if you're close to that age, but it is a fact.
You can read studies, you can do whatever, but yes that happened.
So we were hoping currently for her, in her younger 30s, to get a good amount of embryos
and then save those. That way later, let's say if...
I'm I don't know... 35, 40 years old and I still want to try for more kids,
we can use those 32 year old embryos.
That's what we were hoping, but that didn't happen.
So we went through that process being very optimistic
and then we did the trigger and we thought okay that's great.
Like her numbers were really good. She was doing great
and I started my birth control... like my shots and stuff
and she was on a lot of medications, like a lot of shots.
I think it's just it. That's the physical part of it you know.
Jenna sometimes had three... I think at one time she had four shots she had to do per night.
Then you had to time em and you had to do some in the morning
and I had to do shots every day for myself from just before the transfer
all the way up until I was 12 weeks pregnant.
So I had to give shots to myself every day and I take pills every day.
So the physical part of it you know is it's draining you know
and some people are really bad with needles
and you know that means you have to give yourself shots like all the time.
Whether it's in the stomach, the legs, butt whatever and it's a pain.
Like some people end up getting bruises and just there's a lot.
You know if you have to do PIO shots, it's in your butt.
So you have to give yourself a shot in the butt every single day which is pretty awful.
You know, some people have to do that twice a day depending on their regimen.
So the physical part is very hard, but I think mental is just worse.
Because after we went through the trigger... I gave her the trigger and then
we were hoping like okay the next day everything's gonna be great and perfect.
Then we did the blood work and we got a call saying
"no that wasn't enough you have to do it again".
So then I had to give her a trigger again, two different shots and we were really concerned.
Then you know the next day we go in for the transfer and that process was just a mess.
You know unfortunately for Jenna, like I mentioned, she has very, very thin veins
and typically she has what's called rolling veins.
Um so it's really hard to get an IV in her and that's just always been difficult.
But also they require you to I guess almost dehydrate yourself.
You can't have any water after midnight, up until the transfer, which is around 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning.
So that makes it even worse. So then we went in
and she's the first person and we arrived there and started the procedure
and they poked in her arm, they poked in her arm again, nothing...
like literally they poked in both of her arms, both of her wrists, both of her hands, both of her feet,
and they were even considering going into her neck.
Then eventually after an hour and a half the the doctor said
"you know if we're not able to get an IV in soon we're just gonna have to cancel the whole entire retrieval".
I was just like... serious?! We just paid all this money
and we went through all of these shots and did all this and had to miss work
and like I was almost in tears. I mean I kept them in because
I didn't want to cry in front of Jenna because that upsets her
and she's going through this whole procedure.
But luckily somebody thought to get a child or a pediatric size needle.
So literally one of the nurses had to like run across to another building on this like medical campus
and then run back and they finally were able to get one in.
So then we went ahead and she had her retrieval done... and at first they had said before
"we think that probably we'll get about 15 eggs from you."
You know, hoping that you know it'll go down to five or six embryos.
But then after we had the bad trigger and we had you know the bad IV and everything taking so long,
I think we only end up getting nine and believe it was nine eggs.
Again I just was so depressed about it I was like just okay great like you know.
I felt so bad cause.... for Jenna I know she probably feels bad because you know
I mean it's not really her body's fault, but you know you still feel like it's your fault
because she's the one that's providing them.
So I felt bad because I was just sad about the entire process and
you know like I said after that then we waited and obviously we only got the one.
Which is one little embryo and so far still made it.
But yeah that IVF procedure just... it was so stressful and emotional
and honestly would we do it again?
Maybe... um you know right now we have to...
we're talking with our insurance and seeing potentially it will be covered next year.
But I have to see if we even qualify and all of that.
So we'll probably talk about that more later if that's something that we decide to do.
Again you know why we're doing... again the procedure all of that.
But honestly if we had to physically pay ourselves I don't think we'd ever do it again.
You know it just... you think that everything's gonna go great
and then you go through all that. You pay all that money and then you know...
I mean if this embryo didn't work we would have had nothing... zero.
So that. I mean we're just really fortunate that this worked. Like really, really lucky.
I think that's what a lot of people don't understand when it comes to IVF.
You know I mean, honestly we're just lucky that we already had one kid
and we have the option of doing IUI if we really need to.
But some couples don't. IVF is their only option and they've tried for many years and they can't get anything.
So I think the cost monetarily... this cost again is expensive, yes.
It can even be worse twenty, thirty, forty thousand dollars.
But I think the mental aspect of IVF is really worse.
So I just kind of want to warn you.
You know, if you guys are considering doing IVF,
first of all make sure you save money and if you're lucky
and insurance covers it, great! You're fortunate.
But if not, just try your best to you know find places... like you can
maybe try CNY Fertility here in New York. They offer cheaper packages.
They... their approach is more... kind of a factory approach
because they just have so many clients or patients there.
So with that one you do have to be a little bit more like assertive and involved in the process yourself.
But you can... or there's places like my clinic you know they offer packages that are a little bit cheaper.
I know there's a lot of different places that offer some sort of package deal
which might be worth it for you.
So that's just something to consider when you're saving like monetarily.
But then also mentally prepare yourself because IVF is not easy.
No matter if the process works out smoothly and you know smooth as butter.
It doesn't matter. Still it's just... it's a mental game and it's really hard.
It's just mentally hard. So I just want to talk about you know all of the IVF costs, monetarily, mentally, physically.
You know what our experience was and we'll see if we get to do it again.
We'll definitely keep you informed if we're able to do that and what happens.
So yeah, thank you so much for watching
Hopefully you guys have enjoyed this video.
If you have any questions for me whether it's related to the IVF procedure,
reciprocal IVF, the monetary cost, anything like that, just let me know
and I will try my best to answer it. If I don't know,
I will try to research and then let you know the answer.
Again, if you're going through IVF right now, good luck. I'm there for you.
If you want to just rant down below and tell about your experience
whether it's positive or negative, that's fine. Leave a comment down below.
Let me know what was your experience with IVF. Did it go well ? Did it not?
Are you still going through it now? Let me know.
Alright, thanks so much for watching and see you the next one, bye.