There is no doubt that IVF is the best fertility treatment with the highest
pregnancy rate. However, IVF is also the most expensive fertility treatment.
There are ways that you can reduce some IVF costs and make it more affordable stay tuned.
First, let's talk about the different components that make up the cost for IVF
You have IVF medications, monitoring, the IVF egg retrieval, the stuff that's done
in the laboratory and then the IVF transfer.
Let's talk about IVF medications first.
There are several different types of medications used in
the process of stimulating the ovaries before the egg retrieval.
The most expensive of these medications are called gonadotropins.
These are the medications that contain the hormones FSH or LH
Some of the brands that are commonly used include: Follistim, Gonal-F and Menopur
Both Follistim and Gonal-F contain FSH and serve as the
primary hormone to stimulate the ovaries. Some doctors, however, like to add Menopur
Menopur contains both FSH and LH. Doctors who like Menopur use it for the added LH
but this is an expensive choice. The daily cost for an average 150
international unit dose of Menopur is $180 per day. Over the course of an
average 10 days stimulation this adds nearly $2,000 to your medication costs.
A less expensive alternative, which I use at the Naperville Fertility Center, is
called the low dose hCG protocol. hCG and LH are very similar hormones. You can use
hCG in place of LH and it actually works better because it lasts longer in the body.
One brand of hCG called Pregnyl costs about 110 dollars for one bottle
But that one bottle will last you for the entire stimulation. So this one change to
your protocol not only works better, but can save you about $1,700 in medication costs
by not having to use Menopur. But wait - there's more!!!
hCG is roughly six times more potent than FSH
So once the FSH has started your follicles growing, and you start hCG,
you can reduce the dose of FSH or in some cases stop it completely
How much does this save you?
If we use an average IVF dose of FSH of 300 international units per day
A 600 international unit cartridge of Follistim would last you
two days and cost about six hundred and twenty dollars
Over a ten day stimulation, that's about $3,100. But if you start low dose hCG by say the sixth day
and reduce the dose of FSH to 75 you would save another $1,300 in medication cost
If you're a patient who doesn't respond well to fertility medication
which fertility doctors call a poor responder, this change can save you
several thousand dollars. Just think what you could do with all of that extra money
How about the IVF laboratory? Do you know that there are two different
ways that eggs can be fertilized with sperm? In the first method, sperm are
placed in the lab dish near the egg. This is called standard insemination.
The second method involves injecting a sperm directly into an egg. This technique is
called ICSI, which stands for intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
Most IVF centers will charge an extra $1200 to $2000 dollars to do ICSI.
So should you pay the extra amount? If you're a couple with a male
factor, like low sperm counts, poor motility or an abnormal Cap-Score or a
history of failed fertilization, then you should absolutely spend the money to
have ICSI. But what if you aren't in one of these groups? First, it's important
to understand that pregnancy rates with ICSI are not any better than with
standard insemination. ICSI is just a tool to get the eggs fertilized. If you have a
normal semen analysis and Cap-Score and you use standard insemination, the risk
that none of the eggs will fertilize is somewhere around 5 to 15%. In other words,
there is a 5 to 15% chance you could end up with zero embryos. If that
risk is acceptable to you, then you should discuss standard insemination
with your doctor. What would really be great is if you had medical insurance
that covered the cost of IVF. Here in the United States, there are several states
that require insurance coverage for IVF. The best two states for IVF coverage are
Illinois, where the Naperville Fertility Center is located, and Massachusetts.
Across the world, there are some countries that pay for IVF as part of
their national health services, like the U.K. But there are often restrictions.
In Ontario, Canada, for example, you can get one cycle of IVF paid for, but you are
still responsible for the medication costs. So my tips would be very helpful
to our close friends to the north. If you like this video remember to like this
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