Hello,
Firstly, sorry to hear that you are having to move down the pathway of IVF to achieve your dream of a baby - all of us here know how stressful and difficult that is and I'm sure that you will find lots of support and advice. good luck.

As for your questions - i'll do my best to answer, but I'm sure if you have a look around the concpetion put of the forum, esp the LTTTC areas, you will find more info.

The answer to many of your questions will be 'it depends'. That is because there different approaches that may be taken that come under the broad unbrella of IVF, and depending on what you need, the type of treatment, and which clinic you go to - things can be very different.

Regarding costs, there is a good 'sticky thread' in the Long Term TTC area that will provide the best info. While treatment can be expensive, some of it is also covered by the medicare safety net (so make sure you are registered), and that can help. If you have private insurance, that can help a little to, for example day proceedures to harvet eggs. You can also ask you FS which IVF clinic they are aligned to and contact the clinic and ask for their price list.

As for what is involved, again that is a hard one as it will be different depending on the type of approach your fs takes, but in general...
1. short time on the pill to get your body to a base level
2. injections or nasal spray to stop you ovulating
3. injections to make your body produce lots of follicles - during this time you may have ultrasounds and blood tests to monitor how things are going and how your body is responding to the drugs
4. day proceedure to collect the ovum (eggs) (no more injections!)
5. collection of your partners sperm and fertilisation of your eggs
6. transfer of fertilised embryo 2-5 days after your pick up, back into you (done in the drs rooms - like a pap smear)
6b. If you have extra embryos, these will be frozen for use in a natural, or FET cycle.
7. dreaded two week wait (TWW) during which time the embryo hopfully implants and starts your little baby
8. pregnancy blood test. If this is positive then you will have further blood tests and a ultrasound at approx 6 weeks to see how things are going. If it is neg, and you have frozen embies, you can then go onto an FET after waiting for a cycle.

I think that most clinics will have a treatment overview on their website - I know Melbourne IVF do (MIVF), it may be worth having a look for more detailed info.

Does it hurt? Depends on the person. I dont worry about the injections, but the egg pick ups knock me around for a few days. Some people suffer from a OHSS which can leave you in hospital and very ill - it is a risk with IVF but more for people with Polycystic Ovary Syndrom - from what i know. For me, the hardest part of IVF is the emotional side of things, the stress and grief and upset when things dont go the way we want them to, coupled with the fact that infertility is not something spoken about alot or that fertile people understand.

I hope this helps and good luck.
FG