IVF, anyone? (painful, pregnant, hormones, insurance) - Doctors, illness, diseases, nutrition, sleep, stress, diet, hospitals, medicine, cancer, heart disease - City-Data Forum

Sudcaro · 08-10-2009, 02:36 PM

Next November I will start undergoing procedures in order to have IVF, the only way for us have to have a child.
I am nearly 38 and everything is fine with me according to the exams I've taken over the past few weeks, but my husband has little healthy sperm: our chance to have a baby "the natural way" is about 10%, but via IVF it should be about 70% .
I must say it was rough when I learnt that would be the only way, I guess I was a bit scared! But now I am very motivated (yet still a bit concerned!).

I would like to know if anyone here has been through the same thing, share experiences (good and bad) etc...

pitt_transplant · 08-10-2009, 03:05 PM

I just want to wish you good luck! I hope it turns out well for all three of you!

Poltracker · 08-10-2009, 03:34 PM

No experience here, but I do want to wish you the best and hope the first time is the charm.

Sudcaro · 08-10-2009, 04:02 PM

Thanks to both of you!

Penguin_ie · 08-11-2009, 04:35 AM

We suffered from infertility to, though it was unexplained- husband had low volume but good count. After 3 years and 3 cycles of treatment, I got pregnant with boy/ girl twins who are now 18 months old. It's a hard road, but a worthwhile one.

twinmma · 08-11-2009, 08:05 AM

I didn't do IVF, but did get pregnant with twins after doing IUI.
I first did 3 rounds of clomid with IUI's and nothing happened except the clomid messed me up cycle wise. We then took a cycle off. Then I did shots (Gonal) and did a final IUI and got pregnant. It has been about 3 years so hard to remember but I think I took the shots daily in my belly and then I took another shot in my arm. I remember it not being painful but more having to get used to giving myself shots all the time. Once I did get pregnant (on the 4th IUI...had it not worked we would have gone onto IVF) I had A LOT of sonograms and such to make sure everything was fine. At 7 weeks we found out we were having twins.
Hang in there. It is a very emotional time. Not only is it difficult b/c you want it so badly but also b/c of all of the hormones you are introducing in large quantities to your body.
My friend just did her 4th IVF cycle and finally got pregnant with a single baby. She did the share risk plan where she would have got 6 tries...something like that.
I wish you the best. I know how hard it is. But I will say it is well worth it. If you get pregnant you get the prize at the end and if you don't at least you know you did everything you could and will have no what ifs.

twinmma · 08-11-2009, 08:07 AM

oh...and it was all on me. Hubby was good but for some reason my body killed his sperm so the IUI let the sperm bipass the area that killed the sperm and go directly to the follicles/eggs. (They had thought I had a problem with my tubes but after a couple painful tests we found out that wasn't the case. They also did a lap on me the month before I got pregnant where they removed stage 2 endometreosis.

Sudcaro · 08-12-2009, 06:22 AM

Thank you for sharing your experience twinmma!

Sudcaro · 08-12-2009, 04:59 PM

I'm a bit lost now. I have just received some leaflets from my gyn which include the costs, and it's more than we thought it would be. Actually the price we knew did not include medication and a few other things. There's a 7.000 dollars difference with what we believed, that's a lot. We knew it was expensive, we have enough money in the bank for that I think, and our insurance should reimburse quite a bit, but I'm not too sure, that really is a lot, it's scary...

twinmma · 08-12-2009, 06:47 PM

It is VERY expensive. Maybe you should find a clinic that does the shared risk I mentioned.
Medication is VERY expensive as well. The one medication (may have been the gonal but I can't remember) was $1K per shot. We had to buy 5 of them! Our insurance had a $15K lifetime limit. We had a lot of co-pays and such...We got pregnant on our last try for what insurance would cover. If we had to move onto IVF it would have been out of pocket.
Some places have clinics where medication is donated. For example, I mentioned buying 5 of the 1K shots...I only used 2 of them so I donated the remaining, unopened and unused to a program in Philly.
Good luck! it is costly...which makes it even harder. But I can tell you having twins is not cheap either, lol!