It cost us about $15,000 and that included the sperm retrieval for Mark. Surprisingly, my ins. covered quite a few of the ultrasounds, office visits and blood draws.
The catch???? My ins. DOES cover infertility diagnosis and treatment but specifically excludes IVF or anything associated with IVF.
Many couples seek help from fertility clinics and use medications and monitoring while still trying to get pregnant by having intercourse. This type of treatment (meds and monitoring, but having intercourse) is often covered by many ins. companies.
So, my doctors office didn't bill anything related to IVF (sperm retrieval, egg retrieval, ICSI fertilization, Embryo transfer...) and my ins. surprised us. It's complicated thought because you don't really know if your ins. will pick up any costs until you've already started the procedures/billing.
There is an IVF scholarship that I HIGHLY recommend. Visit www.inciid.org, and click on their program "the Heart". I applied in August 2005, and was awarded a scholarship in April 2006 but I had already become pregnant so it went to the next person in line. They won't pay for any of your surrogacy costs, but if you are selected, they will pay for all your IVF costs, and you do have to raise (raise, fundraise, NOT give) $2000 to help keep their program going (they are 100% non-profit),
Let me know if you have more questions, especially about INCIID, I'm happy to help.
About the leftover embryos...Mark and I decided we would freeze them first, (in case it didn't work, or we want more kids) and when we were all done having babies, to donate ours to science. I think whatever a couple decides to do is what is right for them. A lot donate them to another couple who can't have babies with their own eggs/sperm, and I highly admire that. I personally couldn't donate my embryos.... but to each his own
The catch???? My ins. DOES cover infertility diagnosis and treatment but specifically excludes IVF or anything associated with IVF.
Many couples seek help from fertility clinics and use medications and monitoring while still trying to get pregnant by having intercourse. This type of treatment (meds and monitoring, but having intercourse) is often covered by many ins. companies.
So, my doctors office didn't bill anything related to IVF (sperm retrieval, egg retrieval, ICSI fertilization, Embryo transfer...) and my ins. surprised us. It's complicated thought because you don't really know if your ins. will pick up any costs until you've already started the procedures/billing.
There is an IVF scholarship that I HIGHLY recommend. Visit www.inciid.org, and click on their program "the Heart". I applied in August 2005, and was awarded a scholarship in April 2006 but I had already become pregnant so it went to the next person in line. They won't pay for any of your surrogacy costs, but if you are selected, they will pay for all your IVF costs, and you do have to raise (raise, fundraise, NOT give) $2000 to help keep their program going (they are 100% non-profit),
Let me know if you have more questions, especially about INCIID, I'm happy to help.
About the leftover embryos...Mark and I decided we would freeze them first, (in case it didn't work, or we want more kids) and when we were all done having babies, to donate ours to science. I think whatever a couple decides to do is what is right for them. A lot donate them to another couple who can't have babies with their own eggs/sperm, and I highly admire that. I personally couldn't donate my embryos.... but to each his own