For some the answer to the question of how to pay for fertility treatment is easy enough: health insurance or savings. For others it is much more complicated. Their insurance doesn’t cover fertility treatment. They are still paying off student loans. They aren’t in high paying jobs. How do these folks afford IVF?
People often find themselves between a rock and a hard place. The logical solution to not being able to afford something is to wait until you can. That’s the American way, right? However, waiting isn’t always the best choice when trying to get pregnant because every year that goes by means you are less fertile. Every year that goes by potentially increases the cost of IVF and reduces the odds of success.
We posed this question on the Creating a Family Facebook page and Twitter followers: How did you get the money for infertility treatment. The answers came back quick.
- Cleaned out IRA 401k. Went up to our ears in credit card debt. Did yard sales. You name it. Never got pregnant. The debt was awful . Was like buying a house and then going to move in and its burned to the ground . It took 6 yrs to pay if off, with both of us working two full time jobs.
- Saved up for a year or more, got the multiple cycle discount, and got a loan through the clinic for the rest.
- Insurance paid for all but the meds. In total we probably paid just under $500. And yes we did achieve a pregnancy and had a baby boy.
- We haven’t and didn’t, so we didn’t do fertility treatments.
- We raised $3,000 over six months to do our IUI. This was all given by friends and family via a www.youcaring.com profile. Ask and you will receive. I’m 22 weeks pregnant with our miracle girl!
- We worked extra jobs and cut our budget to the core. I would never expect someone else to pay for my infertility treatment. We did ask for any and all gifts (birthday, Christmas, etc.) to be in cash for us to add to our IVF savings account, and our families were happy to do that. Wasn’t a lot, but every little bit helps.
- We went to a clinic that we heard about on one of your shows that has low cost IVF. Best thing we ever did!
How did you pay for fertility treatment?
Image credit: Tom Magliery
I haven’t moved forward with any treatment options yet because the possibility of high debt is paralyzing! One of your bullet points above says “We went to a clinic that we heard about on one of your shows that has low cost IVF. Best thing we ever did!”. Do you have any links or references to how to find those clinics that offer low cost IVF?
Thanks and all my best wishes to those going through the process!
I believe this was the show she was talking about: Lower Cost Infertility Treatment: Does it Work and Is it For You? https://creatingafamily.org/infertility-category/lower-cost-infertility-treatment-does-it-work-and-is-it-for-you/. You will also find many other resources on our Lowering the Cost of IVF section- https://creatingafamily.org/infertility-category/lower-cost-infertility-treatment-does-it-work-and-is-it-for-you/
We did a couple of thing….
1) worked more than one job and
2)played credit card shuffle. We kept getting sent offers for balance transfers. {0.99% interest for 1 year or 2 years on all money transferred from another card} So on the Monday we went in and paid for the IVF using a higher interest card that gave us cash back and the next day I phoned the credit card company and transferred everything to the low interest rate card. (so we got cash back form one and low rate from the other)
AND we never ever ever used that card for anything, we just made payments for two years. Somewhere along the line we got another deal for 1 year and then another deal for endless until the balance was paid. We ended up doing several fresh and frozen cycles.
Last year we were finally pregnant and at 26 weeks my water broke, the stupid doctor at the hospital sent me home without properly checking me and our son died two days later from septic poisoning. The second doctors said he could have stayed in longer and survived if the first doctor just did her job.
But we are not in debt
Oh Lisa, I am so sorry for your loss! How devastating!
My insurance offered $20k toward infertility. The rest was out of pocket until I was told this wouldn’t be an option for me. All together insurance paid it’s portion and I spent from savings another $5-7K. Now, I’m moving toward adoption….
We recently had some patients use a “crowdsourcing” site to help them raise money for their IVF. We thought that was pretty creative! We had heard of people using these websites to help raise money for cancer treatments and some other medical reasons, but not for infertility. We were blown away by the generosity of friends and strangers, both. Here’s the news story on it if anyone is interested: http://ivfga.com/in-the-news/couples-turn-crowdfunding-cover-fertility-treatment-costs/
Double insurance and a loan. Hubby’s insurance covered the drugs, mine covered some of the testing. I paid what I could with my own pocket. Hubby had savings. I also had my car die during the process. Hubby got the newer car I’m driving his into the ground. Between the car, fertility treatments, and our adoption, we spent around $40,000 in two years. It’s almost a perfect 3 way split.