Ways to Reduce Your Fertility Cost So You Can Have a Baby
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Ways to Reduce Your Fertility Cost So You Can Have a Baby
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Aaren_Humpherys]Aaren Humpherys and Heather Humpherys
Are you considering infertility treatments but need ways to reduce your fertility costs? Treatments for infertility have one thing in common. They are not cheap. We know, we spent thousands overcoming our 7 long-years of infertility. It seems that medical costs are constantly on the rise and fertility drugs and treatments are no exception. But starting and having your own family is still an American dream. It seems that the desire to have a family of your own can be so strong that couples will pay any amount for infertility treatments. We did. However, pregnancy is only part one of having a family. How will you feed and keep your family happy and healthy if you're bankrupt? So the question really is: how can you reduce your fertility costs without sacrificing your dreams of having a family?
Let's start with an overview of the possible treatment costs you will have to pay. Sometimes, just knowing the average costs can be helpful in reducing your bills through better planning. To begin, an initial consult can cost you around $100. Analyses and examinations (like semen analysis and ultrasounds) for both men and women can go as high as $300. Fertility drugs will cost you around $300 to $500 or more, depending on the drugs (example, hCG will cost you up to $75 per ampule and you may need as many as 6 ampules, driving the cost up to $450). Artificial inseminations like intrauterine insemination (IUI) will cost around $300 for the procedure itself and an added $150 or more for the extra procedures needed like sperm washes, sometimes costing up to $500 or more. In vitro fertilization (IVF) will cost on average around $12,000. Both IUI and IVF can require multiple attempts or cycles.
One very important thing you can start with in trying to save more money is with the diagnosis itself. Although, as you can see, you may have to pay more for a quality diagnosis, you will end up saving money in the long run because you can streamline your treatments to those you need. For example, in IUIs, fertility drugs for women are often used. This can jack up the price from around 500$ to around $1000. However, if you and your spouse are suffering from male factor infertility alone, than you have the option to forgo some of the drugs as research shows that, in this situation, these drugs are unnecessary. They can actually be detrimental as they increase the chance of birth defects and miscarriages.
You can also try some alternative treatments to replace some of the drugs used if your diagnosis permits it. Some use the drugs to boost the chances of IUI, IVF, and other procedures but some studies have shown acupuncture to be a cheap and viable alternative. Just be careful in choosing your acupuncturist.
Don't just look at the effectiveness of a treatment through its success rate alone. Reviewing the overview of costs, you may want to consider going with the lower priced treatments first. Some clinics and hospitals will try to sell the IVF and ART procedures more vigorously, citing their higher success rates. But looking at it from a cost effective point of view, a cycle of IVF will cost you around $12,000 and maybe more where as a cycle of IUI will be around $1000 (this is the worst case price; you can go as low as $300 if you're luck or you're diagnosis permits it… remember the importance of a correct diagnosis!). This means that you can afford 12 cycles of IUIs for one cycle of IVF (just a hypothetical situation, you really don't want or need 12 cycles of IUI). The success rate of IVF may be high per cycle (at 40% on average according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology or SART), especially when compared with the numbers from IUI (around 15%-20% per cycle) but the relative costs of the procedures means that you can afford more cycles with IUI. Most couples need more than one cycle of IVF to get pregnant while pregnancy rates can go as high as 70%-80% in subsequent cycles of IUI.
Hopefully you get some helpful tips from these suggestions. Not having a family because you can't afford it is just unfair and no one should be denied a family because of money.
Heather and Aaren Humpherys suffered the pains of infertility for over 7 years. They are now the parents of 3 children. For more great information click -> reducing your [http://reliableinfertilityanswers.com/]fertility cost.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Ways-to-Reduce-Your-Fertility-Cost-So-You-Can-Have-a-Baby&id=4701318] Ways to Reduce Your Fertility Cost So You Can Have a Baby
