My DH and I are just getting started on IVF with ICSI and I have been looking at all the costs involved. I was wondering how everyone is affording it, especially those that have had to go through multiple attempts. Now that the Medicare changes are coming in 2010 I am not sure we are going to be able to afford more then one go.
I look forward to hearing your experiences and suggestions.
We are yet to go down that path but getting ready (I only have one bodgy tube and DH has low sperm motility and morphology) I have enough for one cycle (had a few thousand saved to upgrade my car) plus I resigned from my job (got another now though) and got a reasonable large holiday payout. All the money is sitting in the bank for our treatment if/when we go down that path but it will only cover one cycle. We are looking at starting in approx 5months. I guess after that treatment if its not successful we would then look into other ways to afford another cycle (as we are willing to do a few). I have a piano and a horse float that are both worth thousands so I am prepared to sell them for another cycle before I would have time to save for one. It would take me a year to save the money for a cycle or I would have to start working alot more. I am only part time which I like to spend as much time as possible with my 3yr old before she starts school. DH and I have both agreed we wouldn't get a loan to fund it.
Also the clinic we plan to use is Private and alot more expensive then the public clinic which is also an option. We are yet to decide which clinic to use but the public clinic I was told is considerable less so depending on finances and what my Gyno suggests we might end up going through the public clinic which if successful would save us alot of money. The success rates I have been told through the private clinic are much higher and it is 300kms closer then the cheaper public clinic. So I guess if we used the public clinic we could afford two full stimulated cycles if needed for the price of one at the private clinic.
I haven't fully researched the costs myself yet just from what my Gyno (who works at IVF Australia I think its called) has told me. When I said I was interested in Sydney IVF he told me the cost differences and said he will refer me to which ever clinic we decide. Also a lady I was looking after had IVF through both IVF Australia and Sydney IVF and told me to consider IVF Australia due to a variety of reasons including the cost differences (although her baby was conceieved through Sydney IVF but she had 6 full stimulations cycles before she got a BFP between the two clinics)
We just stick it all on the credit card, transfer the medicare rebate and any PHI as soon as we get it, and then pay off the balance as fast as we can by putting money towards it each pay. We let a couple of cycles mount up before we have a break to make sure we pay most of it off, so as to avoid getting into uncomfortable debt.
DH and I had a choice between Repromed in Mildura (45min away) or Repromed in Adelaide (5 1/2hrs away). Adelaide is more expensive but allows your follies to grow to blasty and Mild only 4cell, Adelaide has much better reputation and higher success rates.
Chose Adelaide, DH said if we were going to do IVF, might as well give ourselves the best possible chance to get it right.
Only you can decide, sometimes the finances decide for us, esp after Dec31st.....
Hi, we just finished a down regulation ICSI cycle as a public patient. It cost $5,300 which medicare gave back $3,500. We had to pay $287 for day hospital bed. and there may be an anaethetist fee of of about $100 or $150 still. Sperm storage for the year cost $198, that is paid after the first year in retrospect. We did this on our VISA because I'm not getting any younger. I received the hospital tax invoice the day after ET so went straight to Medicare to claim it.
Last edited by timeforafamily; December 10th, 2009 at 08:28 AM.
: add signature and too much detail
Welcome to BB timeforafamily, best wishes for your journey ahead, make sure you drop by our TTC threads so we can get to know you X Babydust for your testing soon X
I have some money in the bank...and we've saved up some as well (my last few tax returns plus bits and pieces we've dropped in)
We're $6500 out of pocket right now (can't claim anything back until AFTER the cycle...apparently...) so can't wait to see what medicare wil give us back!
I am taxed at the highest rate (haven't bothered changing it since I paid off my HECS debt). For the IUI cycles and the first IVF cycle we paid using tax and savings.
For this last cycle we borrowed some money from my parents and paid the rest on a credit card. We paid $5200 for our last IVF cycle and received $3800 back from Medicare.
We decided to go ahead with the last cycle as our FS told us that the fees would be going up by at least $2000 more this year, as we would be expected to pay all fees upfront. He was also unsure how much return we would get via Medicare because of the new laws.
BTW, whatever you cannot claim through Medicare you can claim through tax. You will get back roughly 20 - 30% of the amount.
my husband and i are selling some assets, which only allow us pay for 1 treatment. if it doesnt work then i dont think we will be able to have another go which will only leave us the option of for a miricle
........ When DP & i were about to embark on the IVF journey about 6years ago my Gyno (IVF specialist) who worked at the private Monash in Melb i told him we simply couldn't afford it (this convo was over the phone) i was astounded that he said " Ok then i will recommend a clinic in Sandringham they will DO it cheaper for you " ... and when i rang this Sandringham clinic i was shocked by the rudeness of the receptionist when i asked how do i go about finding out about costs$ involved ... needless to say i got put off when i rang to tell my Gyno of the rude outcome in which he just didn't care about and said he would get back to me and never did !!
******* So my SUGGESTION is could you ask your Gyno if he knows of a IVF clinic that charges at a lesser cost then others IYKWIM
hi ladies, im in victoria and i am hopefully doing egg retrieval feb 8. I am using an egg donor and it is costing us $9067 and i think we only get about $1500 back from medicare then if it doesnt work first go it will cost about $2500 a hit not sure what medicare rebate you get on that though.
Does anyone know the time frame you have to wait inbetween cycles?
Hi ladies
yes the cost is a major concern we done one cycle of PGD IVF for genetic reasons we can conceive naturally but it is a risk we tried to avoid it cost us $14,218 and we got back about $8,800 then had the added $900 for the orgalutran so we could only afford one go which was unsuccessful now since the medicare changes we would not get much back at all and public clinics don't do PGD IVF so we have no choice but to try naturally and pray our baby is normal what is the government thinking?
Last edited by onthefly; January 30th, 2010 at 04:24 PM.
We did something similiar to Slyder, where we put it on the credit card. I applied for one that had a deal of interest free for 3 months, and paid for the cycle as close to EPU as possible. We had 3 months to save some money as I was doing Synarel for the 3 months leading up to our cycle, but we also had travel costs to pay for as well.
Our savings covered our travel/accommodation costs first.
The anaethetist sent us a bill for our out of pocket, which was easier to handle a small amount instead of the full amount and wait for a refund.
FS sent his bill, and i think i claimed whatever refund we got for him, then sent refund cheque along with our out of pocket cheque.
Once medicare refunded for our cycle, it went straight back to the credit card, then we had enough in what we had saved to pay out the remainder on the CC. With plenty of time to spare in the interest free period... DH had to ring the bank and tell them we had made a 'purchase' that we wanted on the no interest for a certain period. It was a 1 purchase only on interest free, so any other purchases made were charged interest.
How are you affording IVF
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which will only leave us the option of 
for a miricle 
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