Paying for ivf privately

[pteradactyl]

Just wondered if people wouldn't mind sharing how they funded any private ivf treatment? We are going to do it but even saving half and borrowing half takes a reaaaalllyyy long time!!
Did you use savings? Save half and borrow half? Did someone gift it? Just curious as to what people do because it all seems so unachievable when you are both on a fairly low wage but I know we aren't the only people in this situation.

Are you able to do overtime at work? Get an evening job? Cut any costs? If each of you could find another £50 per week (through cutting costs, extra work or both), you would have over 5k in a year.

Some units offer egg sharing - essentially in return for donating some of your eggs collected usually 5 you get to use the rest for yourself and are not charged financially - this wouldn't suit everyone either physically depending on underlying reason for not conceiving or indeed emotionally - Google HFEA which lists all clinics and their services in UK

We got into debt for our last cycle (which failed )

Savings. £25,000 in all.

Are you not eligible on the NHS?

We used savings as, due to a house move, we were no longer eligible on the NHS. Thankfully it only cost us £10k for one successful cycle.

1st cycle was savings
2nd cycle parents paid
3rd cycle loans and part savings
4th fet from 3rd loan and credit card
5th fet from 3rdloan and credit card

5th finally worked after 10yrs ttc and have our miracle daughter almost 8mths

Cost £27k

Still paying her off but worth every penny now had success

Paying Loan off when failed was horrible

Did loans etc due to age as was 42 when had 3rd fresh cycle and was running out of time

Tho once had some frozen the pressure was off a bit as although I was getting older my eggs weren’t

Plus did overtime - extra jobs - cut out takeaway etc to help save

Average cycle is £7/8k I would say for icsi ivf

If you need any extras then could look at £8/9/10k per cycle

Abroad is cheaper. That’s where we went for 3rd -

We're trying to work out finances too. We haven't been TTC for a year yet (8 months now) but had private fertility MOT and husband has low sperm motility, count and morphology. I have potential issues with my tubes. Consultant had said to keep trying for 3 months and come back for HyCoSy and repeat semen analysis if not successful. IVF/ICSI is almost certainly going to be on the cards for us, however. From my reading, it seems as if we could get couple of NHS cycles in our area but I'm worried that there are very long waiting lists and there is so much time pressure with fertility. We could afford to go private but would lose the NHS attempts- and don't have an infinite supply of cash if a lot of cycles are going to be necessary (so hard to know how many cycles is really realistic to budget for). Plus private London clinics are so expensive. CRGH would be great because of location but it seems very pricey and the potential costs terrify me...

I have some inherited savings from relatives that sadly passed away, or I wouldn't have been able to afford the treatments I've had so far. It won't last out infinitely, though.

The other thing I did is that I'm currently doing a part-time masters degree (because I thought what the hell, working full time and having fertility treatment isn't enough to have on my plate, why not add more!) and you can take out up £10,000 in student loan even if the fees aren't that high, which mine aren't. So that added £4,000. (Repayments on that are income-based and are suspended if your income drops below a certain level, so my logic was it's not like 'real' debt.)

Thanks everyone for all the replies. We don't get nhs because I have a dd from a previous relationship.
I have looked into a few options...i enquired about egg sharing at one clinic and they said I'm not eligible so I don't think that's an option sadly.
Overtime....it is a possibility down the line maybe. We can only do overtime when the business requires it and it has to be put on the table by management so I think it may be something at some point but not something i can rely on. In my old job we could do overtime whenever, I miss that!! I think we will save half and borrow half (or a little over), but the idea of paying it back if it fails is pretty dire! We are looking at a multicycle package which is 9k then the extra consults, drugs and tests I reckon will be another 1500-2k. gulp we had nhs tests when we first found out but they're going to be about 3 years old by the time we get around to it so doubt we can use them and doubt the nhs will repeat either!
Persipan that was a really clever way of doing it!
Cannonball, i hope it turns out you don't need it.

Pterodactyl, I’m not sure if you’re able to work extra as you’ve got a child already but ‘overtime’ can simply be another job, eg evenings in a restaurant. One thing to bear in mind is that you might not need 3 cycles unless you’ve got diminished ovarian reserve. If your antral follicle count is good, then out of one egg collection you might have enough embryos for 3+ transfer so likely to get success sooner with no need to fork out for a 3-cycle package.

Cannonball, a good private clinic, like CRGH can achieve in one cycle what nhs clinics in 3... the success rates are double and couples tend to have more embryos to freeze in case another go is needed. So it might be less stress and heartache to go straight to a top clinic.

We went to CRGH. £10k and one successful cycle. We used savings. Decided to pick the best clinic we could afford and throw everything at it.

Thanks jojo, I have considered another job. Im not too sure though because of dd but well worth thinking about. I dont know what my antral follicle count is either, it was never tested. I have pcos so I think it's likely to be higher. Not 100% sure I know what im talking about there though 😂
We are looking at a really good clinic local to us. Its not quite CRGH but still has around a 50% success rate and is only 20 mins away so I am happy. It seems the only thing we did get lucky on was living so close to a god clinic! The package was 2 cycles and unlimited fet... I think having it all paid up would relieve some stress so I feel as confident as I can that it's a good choice. Hopefully. There is so much uncertainty in this infertility game though isn't there!

Thanks, pterodactyl! I think we are very likely to need it so want to be prepared and have a plan asap.

Thanks, JoJo and refusethelies. We have decided to go with CRGH in the new year. Is it worth having outstanding tests done on the NHS when a year of TTC is up? Or should I just have them done at CRGH - do these clinics generally insist on repeating tests at their own sites? (Apart from my AMH, we haven't had any bloods done. I've had ultrasound and DH has had semen analysis, the latter needs to be repeated. There was talk of needing HyCoSy at my fertility MOT as I had probable pelvic adhesions identified on ultrasound).

Do you mind if I ask you which clinic, pterodactyl? No problems if you don't want to say!

With regards to repeating test, I only had the NHS consultant insist on those + doing others that seemed a bit irrelevant/pointless.

We’ve been patients at Zita West (so also a very successful clinic) and they went with my tests from abroad and didn’t repeat anything.

Interesting about the repeating tests thing!!
And cannonball no problem saying at all, it is for care fertility, the northampton branch.

If you can be disciplined with the repayments a credit card with zero interest on purchases could be an idea.
That is my plan to spread the cost a bit.

I agree Blondes it must be gutting to pay off unsuccessful cycles while dealing with the disappointment.

Persipan the student loan was a great idea.

Thanks, JoJo.

It's really sad that as well as the emotional and physical struggle that assisted fertility is, it's really financially debilitating. We spent all our savings on our wedding and house and have spent the past year saving hard to try and replete savings for rainy day... guess this is the rainy day. Having a baby matters a lot more to me than a wedding does (I found wedding expenses so frivolous) so I'm trying to tell myself that. And over a lifetime, this amount of money is nothing. Our future children won't be getting any expensive presents though :)

Please consider going abroad if it's an option for you. Our fresh cycle cost just over £3000 including absolutely everything (drugs, scans in UK, flights, accommodation). That one failed, went back for frozen which cost £1500 (again including drugs, flights and accommodation, and this time extras such as acupuncture, scratch and embryo glue). The second worked. So my two cycles cost about half of one cycle in UK. Good luck x

Typo, FET was about £1200, not £1500

its horrible paying back a loan when you have nothing to show for it :(

people take out loans for cars/holidays/bathrooms etcbut you have something for your repayments

but

it was the only way to get money fast, and due to my age then 42 i didnt have time

def look abroad

the £9k for 3 sounds good, tho the tests/drugs may be more then £2k

i needed all blood tests redone as did df as was over a year old, and tbh at my age the fsh and amh can change so quickly, tho the hepitits etc was the same, abroad also tested for cf

drugs can be up to £150 a day depending on age and dose, average is often 7/ 10days but if say need another 3 days then thats another almost £500

I am currently in the same dilemma, we looked at clinics overseas and they generally have a better success rate than our NHS clinics. I was able to get all the tests I needed for private on the NHS. I sent them all to the clinics and we are now jointly saving to pay for it.

did abroad (Gdansk, Poland) paid EUR 2,800 for IVF with meds

Ladies who went aboard which clinics did you use?

I'm in my TWW at moment on my first and only NHS funded cycle and not wanting to be negative but just doing a little research/forward planning if needed as our limit is 3 cycles so recommendations.

We don't need DE but do need IVF with ICSI.

Thanks ladies