Pivet - Dr Yovich

Hi Everyone,
I mentioned on another thread that we have been TTC for 5 months now - not long but we decided to have some tests- Hubby has ogliospermia with poor quality sperm and poor motility and liquefaction. Prelim tests for me seem ok, but once I get to the clinic I will have to see.

We have a referral to see Dr Yovich at Pivet.

I guess, I have a few questions - has anyone gone through this process (a hubby with low sperm?), with the lack of "good" sperm whats the likelihood I will have a IUI or is it more likely we will have to go straight to IVF?

And, without sounding rude - what are the costs for fertility? appointments, tests, ect.. - I have read $8000 for IVF? I have top cover through Medibank - but I know that fertility specialist is limited cover.

Any advice or experience with this would be great - I am a bit lost at the moment and not quite ready to tell family / sister (she just looks at her hubby and falls pregnant)

Thanks Heaps

Hi,

I am so sorry to hear that you have to go down this road. DH and I have been TTC now for about 19 months and we found out in June last year that he has pretty bad sperm (we hit the jackpot - low motility, bad sperm antibodies, abnormal etc). From the outset here - go and get hubby a vitamin called Menevit from the chemist - we did and when we had our first transfer the IVF scientist told DH that his motility had improved heaps (depending on your IVF clinic and when you are going to go adn see a specialist - only get a small bottle to start as our clinic gave us 3 months supply of this when we paid our rego fee - see below)

When we first went to see the specialist we were told that we would be able to do IUI and that the doctor would run some tests first just to make sure. After lots of tears and me getting forever frustrated with our specialist we were told that we could only do ICIS due to DH's poor everything. From the sounds of it you may have to go straight to ICIS? Only your specialist is going to be able to confirm this though. We have had one round of IVF with ICIS and it failed begining of December - we have one frozen bub left and will try that in a couple of months.

Money wise - it is the one thing that puts me off. Our first appointment with the specialist cost $125.00 (from memory) and you get a fair bit back from Medicare (ask how much when you make your first appointment). I think the next appointment cost something like $66.00. I saw her 2 times. We then had to pay a registration fee at the IVF clinic. Ours was about $250.00 and this got us 3 months supply of Elevit for me and Menevit for DH - it is something that I had to be on anyways and DH was already on it so you are getting something for your money there anyways.

It cost us $6,265.70 upfront for the IVF plus $1,475.00 for the ICIS. We got about $5,000.00 of that back from Medicare afterwards.

We then had to pay about $300.00 for the anesthetic at the hospital - we got some of that back from Medicare.

We had to pay about $1,000.00 for the private hospital (we aren't in a private health fund - this is our choice as we were told that the only thing covered in private health was the hospital fees - we would have had to have waited a year to be covered adn would have ended up paying more than $1,000.00 in private health fund fees anyways - like i said though - our choice).

We also had to pay about $160.00 for the syneral spray - we got this throught the IVF clinic. Our puregon and crinone was paid for as part of our IVF fees.

In relation to telling family - we did.....sometimes I wish I hadn't only because (a) my mother would ring and ask almost daily how it was going after our egg transfer and it would drive me insane (b) I still get the "oh relax" and "oh when the baby is screaming its lungs out and you can't eat lunch/dinner in peace or sex will only be 5 mins when you have no time - when you have a baby" comments. When we told DH's mother the first thing she said to me was oh you just need to relax, it takes time you know - this was after I had told her about DH's sperm issues. I also wish that only a few people at work knew but I work in a small business place and its hard to have all the time off without people asking questions. When we go for our FET I will only be telling the boss.

In relation to time off - I had quite a bit.....it depends though on how far away your specialist is (ours was 1 hour, 15 mins away). Some days I had a whole day off because by teh time I drove there and back, saw the specialist and the IVF clinic half the day was gone and I would find myself forever working back, during lunch hours etc just to make up the time.

Also if you do live a fair way from your specialists (now I don't know what the situation is from state to state - I am in QLD) - the government over here pays for travel - you have to fill out some travel forms from the hospital and I get about $30.00 per trip - every cents helps!!!

I hope this has been a help. Other girls on here are goign through the same thing. Make sure you ask heaps of questions and my advice - if you dont' feel comfortable with your specialist or the IVF clinic - CHANGE!!!!!! On my second trip to the specialist I was alone (DH was working away) and she spent the whole time talking to my boobs and made me very uncomfortabel to the point where I wouldn't go see her alone again, I also got conflicting stories from the specialist and the IVF clinic and yeah wish I had of changed before we decided to go ahead with the IVF as it only got worse from there! Go with your gut - it might cost a bit in fees but in the long run you have to be comfortable!!!

Good luck!!!!!!!!!

Kell

Thank you for your reply Kell. Its really helped make sense of all this, I have my first appointment on Friday the 16th of Jan.

The cost of all this is what is freaking me out. How does everyone afford to pay such large amounts?

How does everyones bodies react to the hormones?
if you have IVF will you have to have a laproscopy?

TTOM is late this month (1 day so far, interestingly) but I have had mild cramping and 2 x BFN.

Krikkit, just wanted to say good luck to you
We went to Pivet. It was a couple of years ago now - the prices would have increased so can't tell you how much it is. If you call reception they will send out the latest list of prices, however, so just ask.

Yovich is the head consultant there. I have seen him and he's a nice bloke. He does cost a bit more for consultations compared to the other doctors there, however, and I think it takes a bit longer to get in for an appointment.

Everyone reacts differently to the hormones - there's no way to predict until you take them!

They often do do laparoscopy first, to determine if there are any other serious issues that may impede fertility or require fixing. And it is probably a good idea before you spend money on IVF...

I agree, sometimes there's less pressure on you the fewer people who know about all this.

All the best to you & your hubby. Hope this is a short journey for you

Hi Marcellus, Thanks for the reply.

Can you explain to me what a laparascopy is? I know you have to go under general - di did you have one done? were you off work for a long time afterwards?

Thanks again!

Hi
No problem
It's a keyhole surgery where they make small incisions and have a look around. They may also operate - for example, removing endometriosis, or somethign like that.
I think I took 1-2 days off work. It heals up quickly, but everyone is different and it depends on what the doc actually does. Mine was just a quick look-see, whereas if you actually have something done it may take longer to recover. Becuase it's keyhole thouhg, it doesn't take long to heal up. The worst part of recovery is the shoulder pain. They fill your abdomen with gas so they can look around easier, and it takes a while to disipate and can cause referred shoulder pain. That only lasted a day or so for me, I think.
It is under a general, but you don't have to stay in hospital or anything, just a day procedure.

How does every afford to pay such large amounts It is very very hard. DH and I are probably on a lower wage than someone from a city was being paid as we live in a medium sized town. We were kind of lucky - we have a $10k credit card (that was maxed out when we found out about the IVF) and DH got that amount from his parents from his grans estate so that paid it off so we had $10k to start so to speak. I have made it a rule though that we dont' go for another round until we have paid off the round before so it is kind of incentive to keep paying it off. I found the hardest part was trying ot get my head around paying out all that money and then not getting much at the end if it fails. You work it out though.

How does everyones bodies react to the hormones? I was ok for the first part of my cycle. The syneral gave me headaches for the first few days of taking it but they were bearable - I didn't have to have time off work or anything. 2 days before my egg retrieval I had bad cramps and they were continous then until about 1 week after ET. I had very bad cramps from the day of ET for a week after. They were bad to the point where sometimes the only relief I would get was either curled in a ball or sitting on the loo :redface:

How does every afford to pay such large amounts It is very very hard. DH and I are probably on a lower wage than someone from a city was being paid as we live in a medium sized town. We were kind of lucky - we have a $10k credit card (that was maxed out when we found out about the IVF) and DH got that amount from his parents from his grans estate so that paid it off so we had $10k to start so to speak. I have made it a rule though that we dont' go for another round until we have paid off the round before so it is kind of incentive to keep paying it off. I found the hardest part was trying ot get my head around paying out all that money and then not getting much at the end if it fails. You work it out though.

How does everyones bodies react to the hormones? I was ok for the first part of my cycle. The syneral gave me headaches for the first few days of taking it but they were bearable - I didn't have to have time off work or anything. 2 days before my egg retrieval I had bad cramps and they were continous then until about 1 week after ET. I had very bad cramps from the day of ET for a week after. They were bad to the point where sometimes the only relief I would get was either curled in a ball or sitting on the loo :redface: