This IVF lark is expensive.

[SylviaPouncer]

£190 for an initial consultation with a doctor.

What does one receive for all this money? It had better be a very interesting chat.

[Pocket1]

It is expensive. And it'll cost a lot more than £ 190 - budget £3-4k per cycle. And average is 3 cycles.

But..... We now have a beautiful daughter who we wouldn't have otherwise

Your clinic should be able to tell you exactly what your appointment will cover - I'm guessing a blood test for you to check amh/fsh levels (egg reserve), maybe an internal scan and most likely a sperm check.

Wishing you loads and loads of luck and success

[threepiecesuite]

It is so expensive - and prohibitive.

I have to wander where normal folk get £12k from. It has taken us 3 years to scrape together £4k for one cycle. If that fails, that's it for us.

[SylviaPouncer]

Internal scan? Are they going to rummage?
Thanks for the good luck wishes, Pocket
I was prepared for it costing thousands overall but the idea of just a consultation being £££ has made me gasp.
We can afford one go but after that it's a choice between buying a house and having a baby.
I might retrain as a doctor and specialise in fertility - I have a feeling it might be lucrative.

[threepiecesuite]

We had tests, scans, HSG and sperm test done on NHS (for free) and it came up as unexplained. But that was a year ago so I expect some of them would need to be repeated at private cost.
We have a child already age 5.

Good luck SylviaPouncer - I really hope you are lucky first time.

[SylviaPouncer]

Thank you, Threepiecesuite!

[Moomin37]

We paid £401 for a private consultation, scan and sperm analysis. I was offered an AMH test for £35 during the appointment and went ahead with that too. We received a detailed letter confirming what was found and the recommended course of action. It was money well spent as we now know what some of our problems are and what the next step is which will be through the NHS (but under the care of the same consultant).

[Persipan]

You may want to ask them whether they'll want to do any additional tests at the same time - my first appointment ended up costing about £500 altogether as they also did a load of blood tests while I was there. It saved me another trip, so it was better for me to do everything then (and it happened to be the right point in my cycle for tests where that mattered) but yeah, it's pricey.

[GalindawithaGa]

Hmmm ICSI is £6.5k per cycle here (frozen North!) and normal ivf about £5.5k. There does seem to be quite a variety of prices across the clinics.

[HermioneWeasley]

I think statistically the chances of one round of IVF being successful is pretty low. Have you got stats from your clinic? It might be something to consider whether it's the best use of your savings

[Lauraqc]

We paid £175 for a private initial consult - it's been the best money we've spent. We had a good chat about problems, i was diagnosed with PCOS and immediately put on meds (which wouldn't have happened for at least another 6 months on NHS). We made sure we saw the consultant at the local NHS hospital who could cross refer us for tests on NHS which saved us money. IVF/ICSI - we'll have to beg or borrow I think..!

[Tootsiepops]

We paid about the same for our private consultation. Had an hour of his undivided attention. It was more time in total than I'd had with 4 different fertility doctors in 12 months in the NHS.

Having said that, the outcome hasn't been any different. Bunch of NHS tests and a bunch of private tests. Still diagnosed as unexplained infertility

[SylviaPouncer]

And now the form filling. Snooze.

[Heels99]

We spent £17k on ivf and that .as several years ago and didn't include tests which were covered lying insurance

[mousmous]

bills will be split.
the 190 is just for the consultant. in addition they might order blood and other tests, which will appear itemised on another bill. not to mention any prescriptions.

[farfallarocks]

It is painful, I spent about £10k on a failed round at ARGC. During my cycle I met people who have remortgaged and are heavily in debt. It is terribly sad and crazy how expensive it is.
Best of luck with your cycle.

[threepiecesuite]

Do people generally go into lots of debt?

At my final NHS appointment, where the consultant simply said 'you're unexplained, we can't do any more - do you want a private IVF referral?', I got up to walk out (in tears) and she called 'one piece of advice...don't put your house on it, lots of people do'.

I mean, it was sort of sage advice really. We have one child and she was trying to say don't let her life suffer by skinting yourselves to fund endless treatment, but it still sort of stung.

We're saving up £5k to have one go, we genuinely can't afford any more. I work part time, we have average jobs and there's just not much spare money. We're about half way there.

[farfallarocks]

We were lucky enough not to but I think lots do, yes.
I also am lucky enough to have one daughter and that changes it for me, we have said we would do 3 rounds and stop.

I suspect if you have no DC the temptation to carry on is huge, I know it would be for me. No DC versus one DC is a very different life in my view.

[Chococlare]

Hi, it's extortionate our final bill is going to be near enough 10K been saving for years, working overtime,selling on ebay, family have gave us stuff to sell on ebay. We moved mortgage providers as TSB were giving £500 just for moving and actually worked out a better deal. Everything costs, consultations, bloods, procedures, drugs. It becomes all consuming! Good luck on your journey

[threepiecesuite]

£10k for one round?
I've looked at my nearest city's clinic with a good reputation and it looks to be around £4-5k all in?

[Chococlare]

I know...10k...its mental. DH needs PESA and I need to use donor eggs with ICSI! We are banking on this working first time!!

[Maidmarigold]

The costs are eye watering. I really do think more should be done to regulate costs because these clinics are making money out of peoples urge for children. I've not kept a running total of what we've spent but it's around 20k. We are still childless. That's when it really hurts, if it had worked then the money would have been worth it. But I've still got the incredible pain of infertility and no savings. That's something that annoys me when people say we can enjoy luxury holidays etc because we don't have kids. Errr no because of what ivf costs.

[Chococlare]

Oh maidmarigold that is a fear of mine as I am seeing how easily we could reach 20K, it's awful. we can nearly afford one try without financially drowning but if it's unsuccessful how can we stop at only one try?! Burning question in our house...Do we keep that money, adopt and use it to provide a nice life for our family. It's an emotional mental minefield. Horrendous money being one of the main factors for having a child and these clinics cashing in!

[Persipan]

The thing is, extra costs can creep in quite easily. I reckon I've spent about £8k on one cycle. £1k of that was donor sperm, which isn't necessary for most people. Another £2k was on having a hysteroscopy done, which I hadn't anticipated but turned out to be needed. I didn't respond to the stims as well as I might have, so had to spend an extra £700 on drugs. Fortunately I didn't need ICSI, but if I had it would have been another £900ish, I think - and it was possible that they might have decided on the day to go with ICSI, but that was really down to how they thought the eggs/sperm would respond when they saw them. So, there are lots of (costly) variables.

[Heels99]

Op I domthink it's wise to go in with your eyes open about the costs etc. if you are worrying about the £190

[Maidmarigold]

That's true that the costs creep up. The clinics always suggest new things and you feel that this might just be the answer. We need icsi but have also tried picsi, embryoscope, etc etc. If we had been lucky and it had worked first time we'd have spent about 3k which I think would have felt ok. We are now at the point that financially we can't try another round.