IVF medication prices

[JeNeBaguetteRien]

Every so often people ask whether it's worth shopping around for IVF medication so I thought I'd start a thread where we can share what medication cost and where we bought it as a resource for others looking.

I can only remember from my latest cycle but here goes :

Menopur £10 per 75iu vial
Gonal F £90 per 450 iu pen or £180 per 900iu pen
Cetrotide £15 per injection
Testosterone gel £28

Delivery £65 from Fertility2u (might be cheaper if not refrigerated)

Hi where did I buy the gonal F pen from?

@greenmist hi there! That's so kind of you to offer, I would love to take you up on this if still available? I have my 3rd round in Jan and will be on the same medications as the ones you listed. Thank you so much!

@greenmist thank you! I've DM'd you.

Has anyone ordered their meds in smaller batches to save having too much left over at the end? Last time there were some I took until I was 12 weeks pregnant but I guess I'll only need to initially buy enough to last me until I find out if I get a BFP, or maybe a few days beyond that? Also I know my meds were revised down last time.

Trying to weigh up the hassle of splitting to smaller batches against the potential saving of not have lots left over?

With all the price increases thought I'd add to this. Recent quote from Fertilty2u:

Menopur £288 per 1200 vial
Buserelin £16.5 per 5.5mg/5.5ml bottle
Ovitrelle is £38 per prefilled pen
Cyclogest is £13.05 per box of 15

Not sure on delivery cost.

I'm on the short flare protocol and my total costs for medication came to £1,533.66.

Will let you know how I get on Asda!

Hi, I got a quote for medicine which is 1/10 of the price from the clinic’s partner pharmacy. I was shocked. Is ASDA’s medicine real/reliable? It’s too much cheaper making me worried. Anyone has experience with ASDA pharmacy? Thank you.

Interesting to hear! I've actually paused my meds costs research since we've decided to go with another clinic so just exploring investigations with them before we look at meds costs. I've heard Asda are good and just have a policy on not having a huge mark up for people who need IVF which is great. I called my local Asda pharmacy branch who confirmed they can supply IVF meds but need a prescription to give costs which I don't have yet.

Asda have a policy not to profit from IVF meds, so it's all sold at cost. Your clinic will have a huge mark up. Some clinics charge large fees for private prescriptions to discourage people going outside their own pharmacy. I used Asda for about half my medication, some was easier to get from my clinic and my clinic sold some things at cost. My cycle was successful and my LO is now 4 months.

Thanks for sharing your story. It also makes me less concern/more comfortable with the quality of the medicines sold by ASDA.

@Pldog I get my meds from Asda and they are cheaper as others have said because they sell at cost price, however they definitely aren't 1/10 of the price when I get them, so I would check you are definitely being given the correct price. Also you need to factor in getting your own equipment, needles, syringes, sharps bin, alcohol wipe and swabs- you can get these from medisave. My clinic charge £60 for the private prescription as well.

the medicine that I asked for price is Dexamethasone 500mcg. It is £4 at ASDA, £10 at a local high street pharmacy but £67 at my clinic. The private prescription fee is £25. But the signifiant price difference is shocking and made me worried if ASDA medicines are reliable.

@Pldog oh yeah steroids are cheap, I guess for this reason the clinic will increase the price a lot more to make it worth them ordering them, some of my hormone medication like letrozole have cost just a few pence from Asda. The main cost with fertility treatment are the stims though, you'll get some saving on that but nothing like the percentage difference you have noticed here.

@Pldog not sure what you mean by reliable, it's a pharmacy and needs to adhere to Uk law. The only issue I have had is that sometimes items are not in stock for Asda to order in from their suppliers, I also can need to wait up to 6 days for the item to be delivered to the store. I can't imagine this being an issue for dexamethasone though, they will most likely have it in stock. You can always call up and check if they have stock, they'll likely even reserve it for you while they wait for you to bring in the prescription.

I guess it’s just me being suspicious becuase of the huge price gap. I stupidly thought is it’s fake medicine so it’s so cheap… 😂Hence I posted to ask people with experience with ASDA.

@Pldog yeah any pharmacy you walk into in the UK, you don't have to worry about that, everything is regulated. There are some concerns with some online pharmacies mostly those operating from abroad but there is usually information on whether they meet regulations.