Cost of IVF

[Ihateslugs]

I’m not sure if this is the best place to ask this, I hope it is and that I do not upset anyone.

I’m trying to find the rough cost of IVF treatment on behalf of a friend who is not on MN. My friend’s son and girlfriend have been trying to conceive for over two years, he is 45 and she is 38 so they are now looking into IVF. They might be eligible though the NHS but my friend is thinking of giving them the money for private treatment if it would be quicker. She is quite wealthy but is struggling to get an idea of the cost as all her online research can only provide rough starting costs with numerous additional costs based on medical needs.

She only want a rough estimate before she speaks to her son and girlfriend as she does not want to offer to help if it is too much, especially as repeated attempts might be needed.

So I offered to ask here if anyone who has had IVF recently could share how much it cost in total.

Many thanks

Hi 👋 I had a funded NHS cycle in April (I am 37). That was unfortunately unsuccessful (we anticipated needing more cycles so that was not a surprise). If we stayed with the NHS it was around 4k with meds (we need ICSI which is an extra cost), but standard IVF would have been 3k. We have decided to explore other private clinics though, currently Create Fertility, and we are looking at around 13k for 3 cycles with ICSI, then meds on top which could take it to around £16k

Should add 4k NHS cost was per cycle, they didn't do multi cycle packages

@Ihateslugs so much to factor in its very difficult to hazard a guess.

Make and female testing.
Drugs (really expensive)
Frozen or fresh transfer
Genetic testing if they want it

Investigations

Personally I would ball park it at 10k for one round. This is on the higher end of the scale but at least she won't be shocked. Some place offer "package deals" and money back if it doesn't work.

I would say if she's able to kindly offer £10k it would go a really long way. Others may say less or more but it really depends on what they discover in the initial investigations.

According to google (and doesn't include the drugs which are expensive)

The IVF cost in the UK ranges from anywhere between: £3,500 and £7,000 per IVF cycle with own eggs without medications, including all necessary basic IVF techniques, visits and scans.

I'm at CRGH (which I wouldn't recommend in general). It is at the top end of the private clinics price wise and pretty poor service. We have spent £25 000 and that is for 2 rounds of ivf (including meds, we did icsi and pgta, which is more expensive) and no transfer yet. So the embryos are frozen, but the price doesn't include the frozen egg transfer, which is to come.

To give you an idea of costs for your friend, for a multi-cycle package (so two rounds of egg collection) with ICSI for 35-37 year old female was approx. £13k this year for us. That includes frozen transfers of embryos as well. It doesn’t include meds and any investigations. We’re having add ons following our failed NHS round and it doesn’t count that either. It works out more expensive if this first round works, but if get frozen embryos and have to transfer one of them, we’ll be just about even. If we need the second cycle it will reduce the costs by several thousand pounds.

It really does depend on several factors. Meds can be expensive- High dose stims are very expensive as you’re going through more of them. If you have immune issues it gets quite expensive from reading these forums. Some forms of progesterone are very expensive but required. Any genetic testing is expensive. I’d imagine the £3-4k per cycle is for ivf, no meds, probably doesn’t include extra fees. About £6-7k seems more realistic. Some very intensive clinics in London you could be looking at over £10k for 1 round.

Thanks for your help e everyone, it’s a lot more than I thought! I’ll be speaking to my friend later, I think she can afford to help luckily and I’ll suggest she might need to budget for maybe £20k initially to cover most possible scenarios. Obviously her son and girlfriend to have an assessment first but at least she will have a rough idea.

Including meds, £5-10k for a round of egg collection and a transfer. Varies hugely due to add one required for different situations. I've never heard of anyone doing a round including meds for as cheap as £3.5k.

I would budget £10k per round.

I'm on a multi cycle deal - 3 egg collections and unlimited transfers over a year. Worked out that if cycle 1 is successful we'll have spent around £14.5k - that includes initial MOT tests & meds (I have the highest dose and they alone for the egg collection cost £2,250). If we are successful 2nd round then it will have cost £20k and 3rd round £26k. If not at all, £26k with nothing to show - but that's the risk you take with IVF.

X

Should also add that the cost above includes ICSI and is in London x

I had a multicycle package with care fertility near London for £8800 ICSI 2 rounds. Meds were about £2000 ish for fresh cycle, and about £500 for the frozen transfer cycle. All frozen transfers included in price of multicycle when otherwise you'd be paying about £2200 per frozen embryo if just paying for one round privately, it's often in the small print and easily missed! So would cost way more and puts pressure on that first fresh transfer working. I took progesterone for 12 weeks after the successful frozen transfer which was £100 a week, so all in about £13/14000 for us. We won't need to use that 2nd round now as I'm 38 weeks pregnant and have 4 frozen embryos from first round but it worked out the same cost for us as if we'd done one round plus one frozen transfer so haven't lost anything, and can still use those 4 frozen for free essentially, won't have to pay £2200 per embryo put back in.

Thanks for all your information, so much to take in! Good luck to any of you going through IVF at the moment.

Hi All, I ought to have added that my amount stated was for natural modified IVF....if anyone has any advice on what actual costings could look like for a mild or natural modified IVF multi cycle package that would be really appreciated. We are considering Create.

I have low AMH/AFC, so I am not expecting high numbers (if we manage to get an embryo), so FET's are likely to be low in number overall, with that in mind would PGTA be worth it cost wise if numbers are low anyway?

I did duo stim with Care and also did pgta. I sent 7 for testing and 3 came back perfect. My amh and afc are very very low due to my age. Currently almost 12 weeks pregnant. For me, pgta was a no brainer. I wouldnt want to go through a transfer that was never going to work xx

Thanks @CR7 and congratulations! I have considered duo stim, my AMH was 6 pmol late last year and AFC around 4-6 (got 4 eggs first time round, albeit 2 were mature and the other 2 immature). I do not think Create do duo stim, but perhaps something to consider maybe.

If you do not mind me asking, what were your costings like? Did you try mild and/or natural modified intially?

My amh went from 4.1 to 2.2 in less than a year.

I had a free round with the nhs which was awful then I went straight to duo stim. It was expensive as you basically do two rounds in one cycle and you obviously need twice the drugs but it worked so well for me. I got 13 eggs from the two rounds, 7 to day five and 3 through pgta.

I also had a Hysteroscopy, Endemtrio and a mock cycle so it's very hard to work out the coatings but you could definitely call and ask.

I had my initial tests with create but didn't have the best experience although my friend is with them abs really pleased with her care xx

Thanks @CR7 Was there anything particular that put you off Create at all? It is really hard to know which clinic to go with, I was tempted by Care but when I had a consultation earlier this year, before going ahead with my NHS round, they suggested long protocol which I was not keen on at all with my AMH.... duo stim was not even mentioned.

My NHS round was short protocol but high dose stims (450 Gonal-F), so am wondering if high dose stims is not the best for me with my numbers

@Sunflower360 I did short protocol each time with 375 dosage.

First guy I met at create I liked. Second time I found people rude and I had to chase my test results twice. When I was getting scanned the dr and nurse were talking about their dogs and paid zero attention to me. I didn't get a good feeling.
I have checked and create near me don't do duo stim, you're correct.

I honestly don't believe I would have had such good results without the duo stim. Xx

Thanks @CR7 definitely will consider duo stim should Create not work out for any reason. With Duo Stim is there an AMH level or circumstances that Care recommend it? I don't know why they didn't suggest it in the consultation, and instead advised long protocol in my circumstances

I was told it was right for me from an age and amh angle x

Sorry if you have already mentioned @CR7 what was your age/AMH at the time of duo stims? I'm 37, AMH was 6 (could be lower now as that was last year)

When I started I was 39. I'm now 42 x

At time of due stim my amh has fallen from 4.2
To 2.2 in less than a year xx