Saturday, January 19, 2013

IVF aboard!

DH and I won't be in the States this summer (and every summer, hopefully), so naturally, I'm already planning on the future IF treatment during our absence from our clinic in NY. Of course I'm crossing my fingers for this upcoming IVF(our 6th!Yay), hopefully, all of what I am doing now will prove to be unnecessary.  Because where we will be mostly during the summer, we are better off going to Denmark for IVF. After a bit extensive research, I found several hospitals in Denmark that have good reputation on IF treatment. I locked it on Copenhagen Fertility Center (I LOVE when a website is simple and informative). Everything is listed on there. Turns out the cost of IVF & IUI is about 1/3 of what I am paying (out of pocket with insurance) in NY!  After thumbing through the treatment sheets I thought they were more personalized with the word "unexplained"-- with my RE, they could never identify my "unexplained self" on book so they just mark me with "poor egg quality", where in fact, at a worse case scenario,  we always had one fair quality embryo to transfer, however because I also never had a m/c, evidently no embryo made it to / fail to implant, and that's where we need some answers.
Here's the Danish clinic's IVF price list--


1 Danish Krone = 0.18 US Dollar

Contract on 3 standard IVF-treatments  DKK 36,500 = 6515 UDS
Microinsemination (ICSI)   DKK 3,500 = 625 USD
Aspiration of sperm from the testis (TESA)  DKK 4,000 = 715 USD
(The offer concerns 3 completed treatments, i.e. treatments with egg aspiration regardless of the outcome. The contract terminates with the birth of a living child.)
Assisted hatching (Zona drilling)  DKK 2,500 = 446 USD
Utilization of donor sperm  DKK 900 = 160 USD
Freezing and storage of sperm per year  DKK 1,000 = 180 USD
Freezing of fertilized eggs  DKK 2,500
Transfer of thawed, fertilized eggs  DKK 4,000
Treatment with donor egg (egg donation)  DKK 35,000 = 6247 USD

And so on...it is amazing HOW MUCH we are being charged so over the top for infertility treatments (procedural and cost of drugs ) in the US. Regardless where you are, they are *NOT* cheap, and so many people struggle everyday on top of  stressful lives, besides the frustration of dealing with IF, they also have to battle insurance companies over coverage so they can afford to have a child of their own! WHAT THE HECK America?!?! There is no reason for it, and there is not enough help for people suffering IF..if you don't have insurance you might as well forget about it :(

Here's another form of IVF I found intersting, it's just like the micro IVF.

Low Cost IVF

Cheap IVF treatment

Japanese model / low-stimulation IVF
In recent times there has been much focus on low stimulation protocols to improve egg quality and protect patients against too much medicine, and finally the risk of overstimulation.
Likewise, the increased cost for medication on new drugs for patients a desire to reduce drug costs and still maintain a good chance of becoming pregnant  was seen.

We have, in cooperation with ISMAAR organization proposed a gentle treatment with the principle that we will only have a few ovarian follicles, but maintain good pregnancy s chances.

The treatment is also called Japanese model, where we use the tablets in the form of tamoxifen or clomiphene combined with a low dose of FSH.

Our initial results were promising and now presents the first definitive treatment cycle of a total of 29 treatments has been finalized.

Pregnancy rate for these patients was 31% overall clinical pregnancy per started treatment and a total of 11 children.

The pregnancy rate for our patients up to age 40 is fully satisfactory and with medication is the price:
 
Low stimulation IVF 9,500 kr for the IVF and app 5000 kroner for the medication,
 
Thus a total of 13360 kr ( 2385 USD)
Common IVF on public hospital costs DKK 5000 for IVF treatment and approx. 10,000  in medicine:
 
Total public  15000 kr  (2677USD)
  To qualify for this treatment, the woman must be under 40 years old and have normal blood tests for FSH, LH, AMH.

*I wrote to the center (had to fill out a qualification form) and got a response the next morning, they have scheduled a phone consultation for us and the doctor next week.*


2 comments:

  1. Very interesting! Keep us updated on what you learn! In the DE/IVF community, I have heard of people going to the Czech Republic for effective and affordable care

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  2. Will do, I have several questions in mind for them, first and foremost is the price of drugs. The fertility center supplies their own drug during treatment so I don't expect to see a huge tag!

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