December

I can’t believe January is only one month away. I feel like DH and I have been talking about “starting IVF in January” forever! I guess I had always hoped that we wouldn’t have to go this route, that miraculously we’d conceive on our own and that when January rolled around….we’d already be pregnant. But, here we are….not pregnant and one month away from starting IVF.

DH and I have decided that if we qualify we are going to go with the “6 try/refund program.” Basically, this is a program where you pay one flat fee ($26k, for those wondering,) and then you get 6 “fresh” tries and 6 “frozen” tries (see below for explanation on that.) The flat fee does not include any of the initial testing, the stimulation meds, anesthesia for egg retrieval or freezing or storage of the embryos. So, we are looking at $40-60k total for all the cycles. Yes, I am currently taking cash donations (haha, jk!) If we don’t take a baby home after the 6 tries, then we’d get 70% of the $26k. So, we’d pay around $60k and get $18k back. It’s not a whole lot that you get back, but if we don’t go with this program, each cycle would be about 13k (not including stimulation meds or anesthesia.) We may or may not be successful with our first attempt. If we are not….and have to do more than one cycle, then the 6-try program makes it worth it. If we are successful our first try, we will lose money….but who really cares at this point? We want a baby…..we want a family. We’ve already planned on sinking at least $40k into this. We are hoping for lots of embryos to freeze, if we are successful, then we can use one of our frozen embryos and try for another baby as soon as we are ready again.

(For those interested in knowing the difference between fresh and frozen….basically the fresh tries give rise to multiple eggs (hopefully.) In the lab if those eggs fertilize and stay alive long enough to become blastocysts, then they can freeze those embryos for future use. It is not easy to get your embryos to the point where they can be frozen because in the lab the eggs have to fertilize, they have to stay alive and divide normally for 6 days, and be quality embryos before they can be frozen. Very few make it to this point. )

With all of that said, we are not even sure if we qualify for the refund program. There are multiple tests to complete and multiple hoops that you have to jump through. We’ve completed all of our blood work which were all good enough to qualify. We have to have a few more tests…..another hysterosalpingogram where they shoot dye into your uterus and fallopian tubes. I’ve already had this done, but I have to have it done again to get current results. Once that is done….they will tell us whether or not we qualify. The odds are that we will qualify, so that is the good news. The frustrating part is that I have to repeat (and pay for) many of my tests since they are not current….most are about 12 to 18 months old.

Right now, we are waiting for my next cycle to start….in about one week. Then, we will schedule the following tests for December: hysterosalpingogram, trial transfer and sonohysterogram. We will have appointments with: our IVF nurse team and a financial counselor. We will start ordering our stimulation meds. December will be completely focused around preparing for IVF. Again, please start sending the prayers our way!