Hey Jess, I certainly understand the frustration of the waits/delays etc involved in working with reproductive medicine groups! I have just explained some of my journey/frustrations in another post within g and l pregnancy section. I also have question for Nurse27 re the $10K hidden cost you recently discovered as we are in Adelaide on the IVF/ICSI path and this is news to me.. am now slightly worried that we've miossed a significant cost..can you please enlighten me..ta
Im really sorry to hear that things could be set back for you. I don't know if it is worth it but would mentioning to the counselor that your upset about how things have been handled be of any benefit. Let him/her know that the things you are being told are not in line with their policy and that is the cause for any frustration that your feeling. It stand to reason that how you have been treated would make you frustrated. It sounds like a whole lot of misinformation and inconsistency on their part, things that have been out of your hands.
Good luck and I really hope you don't have to wait long to start DI.
Hey Macca,
Yeah I think I will talk to her about how I'm feeling about it all. She knew I was pretty angry and upset when I left the meeting with her last week, and she said it was totally understandable that I was, but yeah I might chat to her some more about it this Thursday when I see her. Yeah it was definately the clinic that stuffed up and did misinform me, but at the same time I know people make mistakes and I'm sure they didn't mean to do it all on purpose! So I am trying not to get too angry about it or anything.
Hey! Yep....... went in for the counselling session with my dad on Thursday and it went REALLY well. She was really happy that Dad had come along and feels much better about the whole thing now because she knows how much support I have from my dad. So I still need to go see a psychologist who deals with donor stuff and particularly young people doing it, but I'm absolutely sure there's not going to be any problems with it all, so after that (which is on the 11th of nov) I should be able to start pretty much straight away once the psych gives her report to the counsellor at the clinic So yay!! I don't have to wait nearly as long as I thought I was going to!
Thanks for asking
Jess
Hey Karen & Jay,
Thanks for that! It all went extremely well with the psych, she was so great, and she said she sees absolutely no reason why things shouldn't go ahead for me! So she just has to write her report to the counsellor at the clinic and I am on the way! Yay! So should be able to start in December I think Woo hoo!
And awesome that your appointment is so soon, you must both be really excited and happy! Good luck
Jess
Sorry for the slow replies, work has been keeping me ultra busy Jay and I spoke to repromed this week and got stung by a 10K non-medicare claimable fee-For sperm processing. I didn't speak to them myself, but from what Jay told me the fee exists even if you bring your own donor into the equation. They then keep everything on ice for 6 months minimum, and after then can start going through the process. We haven't actually had an appointment with them, just been spoken to over the phone and are quite disenheartened about it at the moment. We were expecting it to be a relatively costly exercise, but we were astonished at the extra expenses-including the appointment fee of $150.
At the moment we are waiting to hear from Flinders to hear what their story is - they bulk bill appointments and according to the website the total out of pocket cost is around $1500. I am wondering if they have a secret expense too. The only trouble for us with Flinders is it is MILES away - we are in the Northern suburbs, and it will mean a lot of travelling - and fun and games in trying to get there for early morning tests and things.
What have your experiences thus far been like? Do you have any tips for us in how to deal with everything?? If you don't mind me asking, how much has it cost you?
Hi Karen
It cost us around $5500 before we got some medicare rebate of around $1800, but that was the big first payment to cover matching you with the donor, all the tests and things like that. Also, once you reach the threshold, you get a lot more back, so if you do need more than one cycle, each one should cost you less as you don't have to pay the 'admin' costs of setting up as a new client and because you get more back from medicare.
Not cheap though!
This topic caught my eye. I hope you are no longer frustrated Kitty Kat (KK). I am interested to learn more about sperm donor and those who choose to take part in such a procedure. I wanted to ask KK a few questions. KK, you do not have to answer, if you don't want too, I will understand. Why have decided to have a sperm donor? You are single right? How old are you exactly? Have you considered having a baby with a guy you know, instead of having a sperm donor?
PS: Sincerely apologetic, if my questions are offensive or simply none of my business.
I am also interested to know about lesbian pregnancies and parenting. Hi Sally, how did you and your partner decide who should carry the baby? Have you faced any bad experiences as a result of your choice? Once again, feel free to answer or not to answer.
Hi Girl22,
I did try to get pregnant before with a known donor, I just did home insemination, but it didn't work (obviously) and now he is engaged to a woman and he's not in a position to be my donor anymore. I don't really have many friends that are males so it wouldn't be very easy for me to find a known donor. Which is why I went to the clinic I realise that it's not perfect that the child wont be able to find out much about their dad until they are 18, but I don't feel I can just wait around until I find a male friend who is willing to do it. Even if I did, a lot of guys don't want to be involved in the child's life so it may end up being exactly the same as having an unknown donor anyway!
Jess
Last edited by kitty_kat_48; October 12th, 2008 at 09:51 AM.
Hello again.. most of you who've been around this section for a few months or more know my story (in bits) but I'd thought I'd repeat some of it as there are a few more recent questions re. decisions like ??who the birth mum etc
I have two children DS1 has just turned 10 and DS2 will be 8 in a couple of weeks. They and their other mum (my ex-DP) were together for 10 years and split up four years ago. She is the biological mother of both the children. Currently ours sons live week about with her and then with me and my DP, so they now have three people they call 'mum' or some variant of eg 'mamma'
Re decision making.. when ex-DP and i started talking about having children (many moons ago now!) we were both clear that we both wanted to physically carry, birth and breastfeed a child. We also at the time thought we'd like 4 children. The deciiosn that she would get pregnant first was easy... she is four years older than me, she really wnated gewt be pregnant at the time, i felt ready to be a mother but was studying fulltime and at that stage my course (medicine) did not allow part time study. The initial plan was that she would have the first one and myself the second. We used a known donor, i did the inseminations myself in our own home (the donor lived interstate but would travel to us) and she got pregnant on the third month of trying.
OUr first son was born in Juily 1998, 5 months before my final med school exams. About a year later we started talking about a second child and contrary to our initial plans we decided that she again would have the child. It was a little harder this time but as we thought we would still have more children I was ok with it. Again she really wanted a second pregnancy and the age factor meant it was sensible for her to do it sooner. A bi factor was that I was finally finishing studying, we were about to have an income for the first time in ages, had bought a house and the mortgage needed paying! We used the same donor and she got pregnant on the second attempt. OUr DS2 was born towards the end of my intern year.
Fast forward almost eight years and I am now 36 living with my sons (every second week) and my DP who is 45. DP and I were clear we wanted children (she din't have any prior to meeting me) and again the decision re who was easy. DP has never, ever wanted to be pregnant/give birth, in fact the idea is abhorrent to her! However, I always have and I guess even if she did want to her age would make it tricky, if not impossible for her.
We are using a known donor (different to the one for DS1 and DS2) weho is in the same state as us. We have been TTC for about 18months but apart from one BFP and very early miscarriage/chem preg in Nov 2007 have not had any luck. FOr a myriad of reasons we are now going down the IVF- in fact ICSI path. This is largely as our donor turns out to have fertility issues but for many reasons we do not want to change donors. Currently our first ICSI is planned for around Jan 2009.
In response to Nurse27... wow! I'm not sure what is going on at repromed but we've never been told of anything like a $10K sperm processing fee! We are seeing Dr Kelton Tremellen who had been really good. But I have also heard good things about a number of their other Drs including Chrisitne Kirby and Louise Hull.
OUr expenses have been as follows
First appt
Me- $115.70 up front with $65.70 back from medicare (so $50 gap)
DP- bulk billed
First appt for our donor
As for my first appt
Follow up appt
Me- $83 up front with $33 back from mediciare (so $50 gap)
Transvaginal ultrasound
$93 up front with $29.75 back from mediciare (so $63.25 gap)
3 mandatory counselling appts- 1 for donor, 1 for me and DP and one with the 3 of us. There is no charge for any of the counselling
I've also had a couple of blood tests for which there has not been an extra charge
OUr donor has given semen samples on three ocassions and has had blood taken, there was no charge for these services.
OUr donor is also taking menevit which is $80 for three months supply from them (and we have bought 2 packets to date, so $160) You can now get it from chemists but at the time we first bought it you couldn't
I am not sure about sperm storage fees. I know there are costs for frozen embryos storage (but i think this is hundreds rather than thousands). I now cannot remember re sperm storage. We certainly have not been charged anything yet and our donor's sperm has been stored for just over three months. Re the sperm storage/quarrantine period- it is actually three months (ours was up last week yay!).. but i do know that since we started with repromed they have done an overhaul of their whole donor program so things may have changed.
That's pretty much our experiencr to date. Donor has another appt on 23/10 then us on 27/11 to actually finally plan first ICSi and sign consents etc! Yay
Nurse 27 if you want to PM me would be happy to give you my mobile number and have a chat/share experiences Good luck, Girldoc
Hi Kitty Kat,
I am really cofused with why your clinic has told you they need to speak to your father, As far as I'm aware, and please correct me if I am wrong, we are going through the same clinic here in Perth, Concept Fertility?????
My partner and I first went in when we were 22 to go on the program, no parents were involved and only 1 counselling session. Now this was only last year. Perhaps it was because we had been together for nearly 5 years and were very stable, I don't know..
We were never told once that if we were under 25 then we needed a consenting parent.
I am very confused as to why there are 2 sets of procedures
Registered User
So yay!! I don't have to wait nearly as long as I thought I was going to!
Jay and I spoke to repromed this week and got stung by a 10K non-medicare claimable fee-For sperm processing. I didn't speak to them myself, but from what Jay told me the fee exists even if you bring your own donor into the equation. They then keep everything on ice for 6 months minimum, and after then can start going through the process. We haven't actually had an appointment with them, just been spoken to over the phone and are quite disenheartened about it at the moment. We were expecting it to be a relatively costly exercise, but we were astonished at the extra expenses-including the appointment fee of $150.
Confused????
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