The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Conceive when its just not happening (12m+)

time2deal

I've pulled out some invoices from my IVF to give actual prices to help, rather than guesses.

I downregged using Synarel for 6 days or so. Then 300iu of Menopur for 12 days, so 3600iu. I used multidose Menopur which I think is slightly cheaper. Which means you have one bottle that you draw out of get your dose.

Not sure it's actually cheaper, but the other option is 75iu bottles I believe, so you would have to do 4 injections each night, rather than 1 higher concentration one.

Then 1 dose of Ovitrelle. I then had to take Synarel for 2 weeks after the EC as I wasn't doing a transfer, and it was to minimise the risk of OHSS. Ok - so costs:

Synarel - 60 dose bottle: £85
Menopur Multidose. 2 x 1200iu: £560
Menopur 4x75iu: £70
Ovitrelle: £26.39
Synarel (for after EC): £51.70

I must be missing a Menopur invoice. So assume I had another smaller box, lets say about £200 or so.

Blood tests:

4x £50 for Oestrogen tests
2x £50 for Hep B tests (which we could have done at GP, but ran out of time)

Fees:
ICSI fee: £5020. Includes all scans, day surgery costs for EC, embryology etc.
Initial consultation: £205.

Total costs:

Fees: £5225
Drugs: £993
Bloods: £300

lucyloo77

tea_lover wrote: »

That's the best bit! I love GA . It's like the loveliest sleep, but it feels like you wake up straight away. Very hard to explain but it really is great lol. I've been a huge fan of anaesthetic since my first laparoscopy.

Haha, thanks for that! I'm going to take that info and use it to persuade my stupid brain that it's something to look forward to and savour! It says in my paperwork from the clinic that I can even bring a CD in to be played during EC if I want!!! Has anyone ever done that? Or would they think I'm a bit weird if I actually did turn up with my own cd, lol!?!

time2deal

lucyloo77 wrote: »

Thank you xx I'm working hard to make the PMA outweigh the terrified-ness, although its not always easy. I think I'm most scared of the sedation for the EC, as I've never had a general anaesthetic or anything like that in my life.

I agree with Tea. I was nervous about a general, but in hindsight it's the easiest bit! I had never had one in December last year, and now I'm averaging one a month!! I've not had one since the end of Feb and starting to miss it.

But seriously, the GA is normally easy. I know BZ had some trouble with low BP, but just tell the docs if you don't feel right. They are cautious and will give you more fluids if you need it. I find it leaves me nicely dozy and relaxed after.

lucyloo77

I'll have a look at my list too tonight when I get home from work, and will post exactly what we got for our £716.

tea_lover

T2D, thank you so much for that, that's so helpful thank you

It's worse than I thought though!! :eek:

I didn't downreg, and presume I won't if we try again. I was on 2x75 menopur for about 4 days, then 3x75 the rest of the time. I would imagine I'd be looking at easily £700 or so on menopur. I'd need one ovitrelle shot, plus about 10 cetrotide (no idea how much they cost).

The ICSI fee (if we use the same clinic) is £3165. That includes EC, embryology and ET, but I don't know about blood tests and scans. I had a LOT of both of those so that could really add up. Heaven only know how much the drugs would be.

I've got two unused bottles of buserelin and a crate load of cyclogest - maybe I could flog it on ebay lol.

Why couldn't our NHS babies stick? Would have been a lot easier, and a lot cheaper!

tea_lover

I will shamelessly say that I genuinely looked forward to EC as I got to be sedated. I really do enjoy it lol. As far as I'm concerned, there has to be some perks to going through all of this!

time2deal

Bear in mind it looks like I was at an expensive clinic (The Lister) so your drugs may be cheaper, your ICSI certainly is! But I'm too scared to change clinics, and the Lister specialises in oldies like me with low AMH.

lucyloo77

Ok, so drugs! Right, looking at my list this is what I've got:-

- Gonal f 900iu pre-filled pen x 3 (I will be on 225, once a day in the morning)
- Cetrotide 250mcg vial x 7
- Ovitrelle x 1
- Suprecur inj x 1
- Crinone gel x 35

Total cost: £716.15

Our clinic sent the prescription to the drug company, and the drug company then phoned us direct. We paid over the phone, confirmed the delivery day, and then up it all turned!

The total costs for our treatment are:-

IVF package (doesn't include the ICSI but includes initial consultation, nurse appointments, doctors fees, ultrasound scans, embryology consulation, 2 sessions of counselling, sedation for egg recovery, USS guided egg recovery, culture optimisation including blastocyst culture, taxi service for EC day and embryo transfer day, pregancy scan, and review consultation) - £2922

ICSI additional cost - £960

HFEA fee - £75

Drugs - £716

So a grand total including the ICSI of £4673

We've been told that includes everything from hereon in (including any more bloods, scans etc), except obviously if we need any extra drugs (i.e. if I need to up the Gonal f dose for example).

We haven't paid for any of the blood tests, chlamydia urine test, SA's etc. We most of them done at the GP, including the "IVF screen" bloods (HIV, Hep B, Hep C etc). However it did turn out that my GP surgery have a policy that they don't do the Ivf screen bloods, that you have to pay for them at the clinic. However they didn't tell us that until we were actually there in the surgery on the day, so they snuck it through but said it was a one-off. Those tests are valid for 12 months at our clinic, so obviously if we're still doing this in a year's time we'll have to pay next time to get them done again.

Phew, long post!! Hope that helps a bit though TL.

EverTheOptimist

Our costs. Seems like we were at an expensive clinic.

The breakdown of what we spent

IVF - £2850
ICSI - £990
HFEA - £75
Extended culture / blastocyst transfer - £365 - we got this back as we didn't get to blasto.

Gonal F 1050 vial x 3 - £891
Gonal F 450 x 3 - £381
Gonasi 5000 x2 - £23
Provera 10mg tabs - £7
Buserelin 1mg/ml - £38

We also had to pay £260 for bloods (HIV, hep) etc as we were over the year since the last tests.

So approx £5500, scans all included, but I only had 3. The down reg and two prior to egg collection,

However I would pay this all again as the above protocol worked for us, and I'm currently 38 weeks.

TL - I have some medication left over, some expires in sept some in jan 2014. Ive got menopur expires in jan. If you want to pm me your protocol and if I've got anything you can have you are more than welcome. Otherwise it will be taken to the clinic and disposed of, which I feel is such a waste. I won't be offended if you'd rather just sort your own.

claire16c

Just popping over to say Lucy don't worry about the ga. I was petrified, I was crying and shaking when I had to have one but when I woke up it was the most amazing feeling. Like tea said above. My friend had one and said to me ' it sounds bad but if that's what doing drugs feels like I can see why people do it,' and I said that Is exactly what I thought too! Lol and I've never touched drugs in my life!

So don't worry it happens really quickly and you'll feel like you had the most relaxing sleep.