Prohibitive IVF cost - shop around or time to walk away?

[ThoughtAboutThisTooMuch]

Hey, looking for advise please from ye far smarter and more experienced peeps.
Have been with CRGH since Jan this year and have had 2 medicated natural cycles. Both bfn. No issues other than low AMH and likely poor quality eggs. I'm 39 with history of repeat MCs. We decided to go for IVF but I've just received an estimate of costs and I'm totally floored. 2 collections, pgs testing and transfer. Was expecting it to be around 10-15k but it's 26! It's too much for us to gamble with. Do you think it's worth looking elsewhere or will everywhere be pretty much the same? I really trust my doctor there but I really can't justify that cost for a single chance. Is it time to walk away?

That's really expensive and I wouldn't pay that..... although thinking about it my 2 cycles of short protocol IVF with ICSI and PGS with 3 FET probably cost that much if I added it all up? 🤦‍♀️

I then did a 3 cycle package of natural modified IVF with ICSI and all drugs , freezing and 1 FET for £13.5k with Create who incidentally specialise in treating women with low AMH (I wish I'd done this first rather than the 2 cycles of short protocol)

We went to CRGH for an initial consultation a few years ago after we had 3 failed rounds at another clinic. The estimated cost of one cycle was at least £18-20k due to all the extras that were recommended.

There was no way we could afford that so we looked elsewhere. We went to Care and did a 2 cycle package funded with Access fertility which cost £8k plus medications. We were very lucky to be successful on the first of those cycles.

Good luck with whatever you decide but I would certainly go to have a look elsewhere so you have other options.

Thanks very much for your replies. Sounds like there might be cheaper options elsewhere then and it's worth at least looking around a bit. Thanks for the advice!

PGS is really expensive - wherever you look, it might be worth asking for cost without this and then trying to get as much info as possible to make a balanced decision on whether you really need it or not.

Def cheaper options elsewhere, CRGH is known for being on the pricey side. They do a multi cycle package, that might be cheaper. Otherwise look for 3 cycle packages elsewhere, the cost will be cheaper

Also if you are 39 there are some access packages for you which also bring the cost down, ivf refund and ivf multi cycle

Thanks @sazzt I think PGS testing is needed for me, or at least that's what I've been led to believe so not sure there's much point in me doing IVF without it.

Will take a look at the access packages, thanks @mowglika. It looks like the medication itself is coming up to about 6.5k (3.1k for each collection then further meds for transfer). I'm not sure whether this is included in the access packages or not? But I'll take a look, thanks.

I did a 3 cycle package with PGS at Create which included one FET. Cost was around 15k. This was for mild / short protocol.

Hi @ThoughtAboutThisTooMuch

This sounds pricey but unfortunately PGT is expensive everywhere. A number of clinics have their price lists available online (or if you email them) so you can compare the breakdown you’ve been given (although this normally does not include the price of medication).

Re your medication, it’s definitely worth shopping around (especially at the price you’ve been quoted). I bought most of the medication for my current cycle from Asda and saved myself about £400/500. They didn’t have everything in stock so had to order the rest from the clinic but overall it was straight forward!

We looked at CRGH but they seemed to add loads of stuff that nowhere else had told me I needed, and definitely charged more for the same aspects of treatment than other places.

Different clinics charge differently for PGS so look into that aspect. For example CRGH charge a flat rate for up to x (maybe 8?) embryos and it’s expensive, whereas lister charge per embryo. So if you have a great round CRGH may be cost effective, but if you get less embryos Lister would be better. This is one of the reasons we stuck with Lister.

It’s definitely worth exploring your protocol with a couple of places and then getting coatings from a number of places to compare.

My wife did short protocol with Lister, and excluding donor sperm but including everything else (no PGS) it was about £7.5k. Mine was more as I had PGS.

Good luck OP.

Sounds like I should check create out, thank you!

Had no idea you can source your own meds, will definitely look into that too!

Our cycle with the NHS was only £4,500 that’s drugs, egg collection, icsi etc
good luck x

It's worthwhile looking at clinics in Greece, Turkey, Prague etc if you need to do more than 1 cycle. Costs about £2000.

@shazzz1xx where was this please?

It was all at Halifax hospital they have a department in there that’s just fertility.. and egg collection was at leeds