We were already undergoing IVF for male-factor infertility when we found out we are both carriers. We are very lucky that our insurance covers infertility treatments at 70% up to $18K lifetime max. They do not cover PGD, but we succesfully petitioned to have it covered at 70% as well in our case. I can't understand why an insurance provider would elect to cover nothing for two known carriers who could have a child that will potentially cost the provider millions over 18 years. From a business standpoint it just makes good sense to pay the $3K up front.
Obviously, this one cycle will eat up most of our lifetime max, but I am so thankful to have any coverage at all. We did one IVF out of pocket before having coverage and I thought it would be our only shot until DH happened to get a job offer from a great company who has great insurance benefits. Incidentally, our first clinic did not even bother to test us to see if we were carriers, so we had no idea until we had started our second IVF at a new clinic. At that point I was already on stims and it was a huge rush to get all of the preliminary genetic workups done in time since the process normally takes six weeks.
We are also using Genesis Genetics and Dr. Hughes and they have been great. The normal process takes a few weeks, but since we were going about things backwards due to not knowing we were carriers, they actually rushed our process and got it all done for us in about a week and a half! In fact we just got our results back today. Of our 10 embryos, 1 is totally CF free, 4 are carriers and 5 have CF....50% was kind of a shock since I was expecting more like 25% to 30% to be affected since that's the statistic I've been reading. I am totally excited to have five good possibilities though.
Good luck with your insurance company! I truly think it is sick that they would rather you take your chances....
