Well, we consulted with Dr. Landay this morning about the whole IVF process.
Here’s the thing. Have you ever been car shopping or house hunting and you found the most perfect thing in the whole wide world? The house or the car of your dreams, with everything you could possibly want and more?
And then you look at the price tag, realize you’ll never be able to afford it, and start to feel deflated, useless, and miserable?
That’s about how today went. Let me break it down.
Because I have been infertile for so long with no apparent cause other than decreased ovarian reserve, and I have a history of RPL (recurrent pregnancy loss), she recommends the whole enchilada.
Meaning we need IVF with ICSI and genetic testing of the blastocysts, because any number of male or female genetic factors can contribute to infertility, failure to implant, and ultimately miscarriage.
If there’s something genetically wrong with the eggs, they won’t thrive. No matter how many IVFs we do, I won’t get pregnant. Genetic testing eliminates the bad eggs, so there’s no wondering whether or not it’ll implant due to some abnormality within the blastocyst.
She also says that no matter how healthy the sperm, some just don’t fertilize well, which may be another one of our issues. Hence the need for ICSI, which is where they physically inject one healthy sperm into each egg using a microscopic needle. This pretty much guarantees fertilization.
For the actual IVF, Dr. Landay does a package deal. It’s $10,000 for everything – all the ultrasounds (follicle monitoring), all lab work, the actual egg retrieval, ICSI, and a fresh embryo transfer. That’s when they just take your eggs and transfer the 5 day blastocyst back into you, with no genetic testing.
But we actually need the genetic testing, so in addition to the $10,000 there’s a $3400 genetic screening fee right off the bat. Then after the genetic screening, which takes about a week, they have to freeze the embryo because I’ll be past the point in my cycle where fertilization can take place. So we wait till the next cycle to thaw the critter and transfer, which is another $3200.
Medication leading up to the retrieval will cost between $3-5,000, and she’s hoping to get 8 eggs from me (which all depends on how many follicles I have start of the cycle, and how they all mature).
So, total cost, start to finish, we’re looking at around $21,600.
She’s given me two different forms to fill out to get discounts on the drugs, so I could get up to 75% off the $5K drug cost. Or nothing.
Actual process looks something like this. On my cycle day 2-3, we’d do another baseline ultrasound to see how many follies I have. On that day, she’d put me on some form of estrogen (like a birth control pill) to do something called down-regulation and synchronization. This stops my body from trying to ovulate, so Dr Landay has full control over the whole process.
After about 2 weeks, I go back in for another ultrasound and get my stimulation meds – the injections. For about 12 days, I take daily injections of FSH and LH, going into the office every other day for yet another ultrasound, starting on the fifth day.
Then comes the trigger shot, once my follies are big enough, and 35 hours later we do the egg retrieval, where I’ll be completely knocked out with IV anesthesia. Then, they send the blastocysts to a lab 5 days after fertilization, genetic test them, and freeze them. Depending on the results of the genetic tests and how many healthy eggs we get, I’d get the frozen embryo transfer the following cycle.
Dr Landay only transfers 1 healthy blastocyst in women 35 and under (hence the genetic testing to get a healthy critter). Then, I can freeze the remaining healthy, fertilized eggs, and in a couple years, if we want another munchkin, they just defrost my egg and transfer it back inside me. I’ll only need 1 egg retrieval for multiple IVFs. Hence the $600/year embryo storage fee.
There’s a ton more information, but facts are:
Since she only transfers 1 blastocyst…chance for multiples is less than 1%. There’s always the chance my egg splits on its own and we get identical twins, but there’s nothing you can do about that.
With genetic testing, there’s a 78.4% chance of a healthy pregnancy. She says this year, every single one of her procedures has been successful –two women miscarried later, but every single woman got pregnant. She says 100% is rare, but nationwide, the way she does it, there’s a 78% success rate. That’s incredible. (She’s really good at what she does!)
Also, before we start anything; provided we can dig up $22,000 (HA!!) – she’s doing more blood work on me to try and figure out the whole RPL thing. There are three more tests she can do that should tell us if I’m prone to miscarry and what they can do about it, if anything.
So, productive morning.
Anyone have a few thousand extra bucks lying around?
My Stork Got Lost 