IVF Cost

Typical costs:

• IVF costs usually are based on a "cycle," which involves one round of monitoring the patient's monthly reproductive cycle, administering drugs, harvesting and fertilizing the eggs and implanting one or more embryos in the uterus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for women under 35, about 37.3 percent of cycles result in a live birth; for women 41 and up, 10.6 percent.
• IVF typically costs $8,000 to $15,000 per cycle; the national average is $12,400, according the The American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Extra embryos can be frozen and implanted later, which is simpler and less expensive -- usually about $1,800 to $4,000 -- than another fresh cycle. The number of cycles varies from one to five, depending on the age of the woman and the reason for infertility. Georgia Reproductive Specialists[2] in Atlanta charges $12,875 for one cycle; The Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago[3] , charges $8,800, and the Tyler medical Clinic[4] in Beverly Hills, California, charges $6,000 to $9,000, not including certain lab fees.
• Many health insurance companies do not cover IVF treatments unless an employer chooses to add such coverage. A few states mandate coverage of infertility treatment, including IVF, with some restrictions. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine lists states that require coverage.
• If insurance does cover IVF, often there is either a limit on the number of cycles allowed or a lifetime amount cap, usually $10,000 to $25,000. On FertileThoughts.com, patients share their experiences with various health insurance companies and plans.
• FertilityLifeLines.com, run by an affiliate of Merck Serono, offers advice on navigating insurance benefits via a toll-free phone number, 1-866-LETS-TRY. The American Fertility Association[5] has a list of questions to ask your insurer.
• For patients covered by insurance, out-of-pocket costs can vary from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on what percentage of treatment cost the company covers -- usually varying from 50 to 100 percent -- whether there is an IVF deductible and whether there is an infertility treatment lifetime maximum, which generally ranges from $10,000 to $25,000. Typical out-of-pocket costs include $15 to $40 copays for office visits, lab work, and prescription drugs as well as deductibles of several hundred dollars for each transfer of embryos. If there are excess embryos the couple wants to save, they also can expect to pay $500 to $700 for freezing them and about $600 per year for storage, which is not usually covered by insurance.

• Most clinics' fees include: ovarian monitoring, egg retrieval, fertilization of eggs, transfer of the embryo to the uterus and all associated physician's and laboratory fees. Texas Fertility[6] offers a chart that illustrates a typical cycle of IVF.
• Tip: Find out, in writing, what is included by a particular clinic and what costs extra.

• Prescreening is required to determine, if possible, the cause or causes of a couple's infertility. Huntington Reproductive Center offers an overview of fertility tests.
• Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) -- where a sperm is manually injected into an egg -- adds to the cost of IVF. Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago[7] offers an explanation of the process, which results in a higher likelihood -- up to 85 percent -- that an individual egg will be successfully fertilized. ICSI typically costs between $750 and $1,200 extra. This is sometimes covered by insurance, especially after several unsuccessful pregnancy attempts.
• Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), which checks embryos for genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome and cystic fibrosis, costs an average of $3,500and is rarely covered by insurance.
• If a cycle is called off before the eggs are harvested, the couple usually receives a partial refund for that cycle, or credit toward another.

• For couples financing the cost of their own IVF, some clinics offer risk-sharing and pregnancy guarantee programs for about $16,000 to $25,000 total. Clinics with non-traditional pricing programs and packages include The Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago[8] and the Genetics & IVF Institute[9] in Virginia and Maryland. These programs often do not include the required medications, which sometimes are covered by insurance.

• To find a fertility clinic, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, which offers a clinic locator by state. The doctor you choose should be a reproductive endocrinologist, meaning they are board-certified by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists[10] and have had at least two to three years additional training in reproductive endocrinology. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine also offers a doctor locator.
• Tip: After locating a clinic using the state-by-state map, check the CDC's online statistics on the clinic's success rate -- percentages of treatment cycles resulting in pregnancies and live births -- by clicking on the clinic's name. A national summary by the CDC offers national success rate averages, to which any individual clinic's success rate can be compared.
• The American Society for Reproductive Medicine offers a primer on choosing an IVF program. Look for programs accredited by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology[11] and the College of American Pathologists, or by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
• Risks associated with injectable fertility drugs, which are part of the IVF process, include infection, hematoma, allergic reactions or hyperstimulation of the ovaries, which can cause abdominal pain and nausea and, in rare cases, a ruptured ovary or blood clot that could lead to stroke and even death. Risks of egg retrieval include damage to adjacent organs -- such as bladder or bowel -- and, very rarely, infection severe enough to require a hysterectomy or removal of one or both ovaries. The risk of embryo transfer includes bleeding, infection and possible tubal pregnancy.

1.  www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007279.htm
2.  www.ivf.com/finance.html
3.  www.advancedfertility.com/ivfprice.htm
4.  www.tylermedicalclinic.com/pricing.html?gclid=CNPRq8_pvpECFRsRFQodIH7_Cg
5.  www.theafa.org/conceive/amicovered.html/
6.  texasfertility.com/typicalivf.htm
7.  www.advancedfertility.com/icsi.htm
8.  www.advancedfertility.com/ivfpr100.htm
9.  www.givf.com/financialprograms/index.shtml
10.  www.acog.org/About_ACOG/Find_an_Ob-Gyn
11.  www.sart.org/

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