One of my goals for National Infertility Awareness Week was to make a transparent post about the financial commitment that comes along with the other highs and lows of infertility. I'm a few days after when I said I'd post this, but fortunately I don't answer to advertisers or sponsors on this little blog. One reason for my tardiness is that I've been busy busy with lots of other stuff, but another piece is that talking about money can be extremely awkward and uncomfortable. I haven't quite reached the point of "getting comfortable being uncomfortable," but maybe I will be there someday. I have said before that as difficult as IVF and other fertility treatments have been, I am at least grateful that we have been able to swing them financially. Not everyone has the chance to try once or twice, much less...at least five times? Plus three IUIs?...but we have. So, I try to appreciate that. However, others also remind me that it's okay to be grateful for the opportunity and detest needing it all at once.
On the day of the great spicy chicken sandwich incident in December 2019, over a year before we met our RE, one of my sisters-in-law mentioned that there are lots of options to help people get pregnant. My immediate response was, "But they're so expensive," and my sister-in-law Maryanne said, "But you have money."
But you have money.
When framed that way, the solution seems so simple. And really, problems that you can fix with money are easier than many other problems. It turns out that infertility isn't a problem that is necessarily fixed with money, but money can certainly solve the problem of access to fertility treatments. Richard and I are fortunate that we can both work, and he earns more money than a lot of people do, but we also have considerable debt for his training. While we were fortunate that we could financially swing fertility treatments, it is incredibly frustrating that we're paying so much to achieve what some people achieve for free (and sometimes on accident!), and we haven't crossed the finish line. But, we remain hopeful.
Anyway, I've thought for a while about how to broach this topic and have not arrived at what I felt was a perfect solution. So, forgive me for any missteps in disclosing this information. My intention is 100% to spread awareness to what [in]fertility treatments can cost and not to flaunt my financial circumstances. If it helps, my car is 17 years old.
To get started, here are a few things to know:
- Our insurance does not cover anything related to [in]fertility.
- Our insurance DOES give us a totally fair price for the therapist that I see largely due to needing assistance coping with infertility and the emotional roller coaster that comes along with that journey. I am grateful for this.
- I do have records of all fertility-related expenses we've paid since 2019, but I'm focusing on 2021 because that's where the bulk of the money has gone, and I already have that information in a spreadsheet thanks to filing our taxes recently.
- Eluryng (birth control ring not covered by my insurance through Richard's hospital): $123.60
- Clinic Procedures (ultrasounds, bloodwork, physician costs, retrieval): $6,648.00
- Laboratory Procedures (preparing the sperm sample, fertilizing the eggs, monitoring the embryos, doing a biopsy of the embryos that make it to testing, freezing the embryos): $5,844.80
- Anesthesia (for the egg retrieval): $525.00
- Specialty medications (not covered by insurance): $6,674.29
- Pain management meds (covered by insurance): $5.11
- Genetic testing of 1 embryo: $475.00
- Birth control pills (not covered by my insurance through Richard's hospital): $25.15
- Clinic Procedures (ultrasounds, bloodwork, physician costs, retrieval): $6,648.00
- Laboratory Procedures (preparing the sperm sample, fertilizing the eggs, monitoring the embryos, doing a biopsy of the embryos that make it to testing, freezing the embryos): $5,844.80
- Anesthesia (for the egg retrieval): $525.00
- Specialty medications (not covered by insurance): $1,981.49
- Medicine to make my ovaries chill out because my estrogen was high at the retrieval (covered by insurance): $15.00
- Genetic testing of 3 embryos: $1,025.00
- Clinic Procedures (ultrasounds, bloodwork, physician costs, retrieval): $6,648.00
- Laboratory Procedures (preparing the sperm sample, fertilizing the eggs, monitoring the embryos, doing a biopsy of the embryos that make it to testing, freezing the embryos): $5,844.80
- Anesthesia (for the egg retrieval): $525.00
- Specialty medications (not covered by insurance): $4,835.38
- Pain management meds (covered by insurance): $5.13
- Genetic testing of 1 embryo: $475.00
- Clinic procedures (ultrasounds, bloodwork, physician costs): $1,144.00
- Laboratory procedures (preparing the sample for insemination): $208.00
- Clomid (covered by insurance): $34.92
- Trigger shot (only used for IUI #3): $133.90
- Clinic Procedures (ultrasounds, bloodwork, physician costs): $2,288.00
- Laboratory Procedures (thawing and culturing the embryo): $1,144.00
- Specialty medications (not covered by insurance): $709.70
- Non-specialty medications (estradiol tablets and patches, methylprednisone, etc.): $64.65
- Clinic Procedures (ultrasounds, bloodwork, physician costs, retrieval): $5,608.00
- Laboratory Procedures (preparing the sperm sample, fertilizing the eggs, monitoring the embryos, doing a biopsy of the embryos that make it to testing, freezing the embryos): $5,844.80
- Anesthesia (for the egg retrieval): $525.00
- Specialty medications (not covered by insurance): $3,723.68
- More PIO after our embryo transfer appeared to work, and my body was producing HCG (the pregnancy hormone): $159.80
- Richard's semen analysis in February: $156.00
- Embryo storage ($41.67 x 4): $166.68
- Therapy ($25 per session, but I eventually hit the deductible, which was cool): $725.00
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