IVF

Travelair · 04-24-2006, 09:22 PM

Has anyone had to go through IVF to conceive? Did it work? My wife and I have a positive pregnancy test (likely twins) and we're very excited. I was just wondering how common this was among us "raging stud" pilot types.

Bob · 04-24-2006, 09:55 PM

First of all... Congrats!

Secondly... IVF was a last straw for us. It took us 5 years to have our first child. We finally started seeing a specialist 2 years into it and found out and my wife had to have surgery for endometriosis as well... We did the Clomid at 50mg/month and timed her cycle to maximize things. We did this for almost 2 years after the surgery and finally up'd the dose to 100mg towards the end of the second year. We were also doing Artificial Insemenation every month for that whole last year.

We were literally one month away from IVF. We had actually decided to lay off things for a while and not be so stressed out about it... when... bam... she got pregnant au natural (still did 100mg clomid). They were twins at first but the one didn't develop the body absorbed it.

On our second child (due in September), we basically followed the same steps... starting naturally, wife had two more surgeries, going with clomid (starting at 100mg) and ending up at 150mg. Due to my wifes age we weren't even going to mess around with AI, and we were just going to jump right into IVF. The month we were trying to decide how many eggs to use... we got pregnant.

So... possibly TMI there... but we had researched IVF quite a bit... Our doctor was counselling us on just how many eggs we would/should use. Since the procedure is so expensive (but the same price whether they use 1 or 3 eggs for example) then he wanted us to be sure that we would be prepared for the outcome. We could use one egg and not have any success, use two eggs and have twins, use three eggs and only one child, or use three eggs and actually have triplets, etc... I guess what I'm saying is it's more likely, based on what the doc was saying, that you definately would have fertalized the eggs (you stud)... because they do that before they place them back in your wife. It's whether or not your wifes body accepts them.

On a side note... I told my doc that I fly to Canada and Mexico, and joked about getting the drugs like pergonal & parlodel there cheaper. ($4000 a shot in the US) He said he'd write a script for them and he didn't care where we got them from.. so I was like totally stoked and looking to trade for Toronto, Montreal, etc. overnights that next week.

Anyway... enjoy the pregnancy and enjoy the twins if it is twins!

Congrats again!

Bob

Travelair · 04-27-2006, 05:18 PM

Congratulations to you as well.

The med's were expensive for sure but the drug plan pays half. Canada would be fine but Mexico is known for selling counterfeit drugs. Even though our 90% EPO covers 50% up to a lifetime max of $2000 it is still pretty good coverage. The doctor is contractually limited to the approved amount. They can bill insurance whatever they want but will only collect the approved amount.

IVF was approved for about $1800. Blue Cross paid half and I owe the rest. The clinic billed roughly $15,000.

Bob your story sounds all too familiar. I can't believe your wife took Clomid for so many years. They have linked it to endomitreosis. Three months is generally considered the norm today. My wife also had stage four endometriosis. She now has the eight inch scar from her navel down.

AlohaFlyer · 05-30-2007, 01:33 PM

My wife and I went to see a doc about IVF today... they quoted us $15,000.... our insurance only covers $2000... but then I found out that they are out of network for BCBS PPO that XJT gives me...

Anyone have any ideas on which docs to go to for better pricing and decent service?

Our doc said that Massachusetts and New Jersey residents get IVF fully covered by many plans... Should I base trade to EWR? Just a far off thought...

any ideas out there?

The place we went to today was Dr. Tim Hickman (Houston IVF)