I have just joined this website/group as I'm having issues with our treatment with IVF - ICSI and am in need of answers.
While looking through other people's questions and responses I hear the amount of times people have gone through IVF, and I can't help but wonder how people are affording to do it?
We are currently going through funding with the NHS at this moment in time it looks like we'll only get one chance with one egg, so am scared about what we'll do if it doesn't work, and how on earth we'll afford IVF privately.
So I was wondering how everyone manages to afford it? Especially several rounds of IVF?
Many thanks
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sparkle183
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I have combined savings with interest free credit cards to pay for IVF. I have also chosen not to go with the most expensive clinics. My criteria has had to include value for money alongside other factors.
Also worth looking into multi-cycle packages especially if the numbers of embryos you create every round are low like me. I wish I did this sooner. Some clinics will offer a refund if you get pregnant after the first go.
All the best and I hope your NHS round works so you don’t have to worry about this. 🙏🏾
I only had one ivf nhs fund I was lucky to get some Frosties, first ended in a chemical pregnancy, so they had to take out a bank loan to pay for 2nd go which worked and had a little boy. I’ve paid my debt of now but we went for a sibling and currently in debt but carrying my 2nd child ♥️ definitely worth the debt and aslong as you can pay the repayment then don’t see the problem just make sure you shop around and get lowest apr xx
So far we have spent around £20k 😥. It's been tough, lots of saving and cutting back on anything we can each month. I wish I went with a clinic that did a multi cycle package (some clinics offer 3 egg retrievals in a package), if we did that from the start we would have saved a huge amount
If you do have to go privately, make sure you do research on clinics that offer packages that would work out cheaper in the long run
There are IVF finance companies who offer multi-cycle packages +/- refunds. You pay them and they pay the clinic. The one I have gone with I have to had pay with a bank transfer. Wish you the best with your current cycle x
Childcare costs are at least £1k month - the cost of giving up a wage to be a stay at home parent a lot more than that....we lived like we had a child for a year and set that money aside - in one year we saved £13k which was enough for a 3 cycle package of natural modified IVF with ICSI
We saved up and paid for the bits and pieces when they popped up on credit card (we extended the limit). We'd paid little bits all the time so that it was spread out over the initial consultation and cycle so it wasn't a massive 18k bill a at once. I got top cover insurance once we started trying for a baby "just in case"...which was actually a God send. My insurance has covered the hospital costs associated with EC, Lap, hystero and biopsies. All extra money that I didn't have to pay. Good luck! I found that when you really want something you'll explore every avenue to make it work! Xx
I'm in OZ so I don't think you can get my insurance! 😅 But please just call around and make inquiries with different insurance companies about coverage and wait times etc. You may be surprised by what you find 😊
It’s all been said, but look at multi cycle packages and low interest loans. First time we did ivf we went with a loan to pay for a multi cycle package - including all meds etc we ended up spending about £10K and paid it off over 2 years. This time round (trying for a sibling) we were lucky enough to have some savings - but still went with a multi cycle package, and will have just taken the loan again if we needed to.... there’s always a way, but there are definitely financial considerations when deciding how many times you try (as well as emotional ones). Good luck x
Well I don’t even want to scare you with the amount I’ve spent. £61k since 2013 but that has been spread out over all them years so it does become more manageable. It definitely depends on individual circumstances: jobs, savings etc which is a shame as love for a child shouldn’t be about who can afford it... life definitely isn’t fair in that way x
We had a NHS funded round and then 2 further attempts where we got a 0% credit card and payed it off within the 24 month term. There are also payment plans with clinics you can do too. The want of a possible family and giving all we had to that chance of our own children outweighed anything else. X
If I could turn the clock back I'd definitely do a multi cycle package or one where you are partly refunded if it doesn't work (access fertility). just tackle each one as it comes. It's amazing how much you can put away each month if you push yourself. Good luck with the next round 🤞xx
Depends on your age and circumstances, you can get multiple cycles with access fertility. We paid 12k£ for 2 cycles. But when you really in the cycles, or you have additional issues, it will cost more. Easily go up to 20k-30k £ without any results. The yearly cost for trying to have a baby is already feel like to raise a kid at private school since the start of ivf.........
We took out a £10k bank loan with low interest and the rest we have used from savings. Around £4K of this was on donor sperm. Going into transfer number 3 from our first egg retrieval, we are hoping the next transfer is our time or I don’t know what we will do. It’s always in the back of my head that if we are lucky enough to have a baby, my maternity pay is pretty crap so we try to be as frugal as possible. Xx
We don’t qualify for any help from the NHs so you’re lucky that you get the one shot. It only takes one egg so keep positive. We’ve had to take out loans and credit cards to pay for ours xx
Oh my goodness I feel the same! I know I shouldn't worry until things happen but as much as I do want a baby I also obvs want that baby to have all the best in life....that includes me owning a home that they will inherit so I really need to get a mortgage asap! I've got my mortgage deposit but see it shrinking with every treatment I pay for and not sure what to do :-0 My mum says a baby won't mind me not being a homeowner as they don't know, but it does make me feel like a failure even though I work so hard and try to save, I just don't earn enough to keep up with these kind of medical bills! It is really tough.
I can so relate to this!!! Our deposit is shrinking with every treatment but I have decided to stop after this and pursue other alternative ms if it does not work out. Fingers crossed it was worth the investment.
I really hope it is worth it for you, much good luck ❤❤...I think I will have to give up after one more cycle too, it is sad but I just can't watch myself become so crazy that I give up everything and get really deep in debt - and then maybe it still doesn't work! That's not me, and as much as I want a child I can't lose myself in the process. I'm on day 8 of 2ww now by the way, hoped this cycle might be it so I wouldn't have to go to my last affordable one. But no symptoms and too scared to test and have my worse suspicions confirmed! This is so hard.
Thank you so much. I will definitely have you in my prayers and I do really hope and pray it works out for you. 🙏🏾
This is such a tough journey and it is hard to keep positive but you have no choice but to keep hopeful until it is really over. Some people don’t have any symptoms so I will remain hopeful for you if that is okay. I think in the middle of this storm there has to be a rainbow peaking through. I will be rooting for you⛅️🌈 ❤️❤️❤️
I had been saving/planning for IVF after about 9 months of trying because there is zero NHS funding in our area, so we knew from the start we'd be looking at doing a multi-cycle. I suggest you start saving now, and as Ivfgotadream says it will also help you to budget plan for having a child. Depending on how open you are to people knowing about your journey, a friend of a friend did a GoFundMe page after her first round did not work. xx
We did two rounds with the NHS and moved on to donor eggs. Donor egg treatment is significantly more expensive but we went to Czech Republic where it is much cheaper. It is worth looking at overseas clinics. Czech and I think Spain, Greece and Cyprus are quite well known for IVF.
Hiya there are different plans to pay. Monthly or some plans where you get a little money back if it hasn’t worked. We’ve spent just over £30 thousand and still no baby but every case is different xxx
I live in Cambridgeshire which means I live in one of the 3 areas in England that offer 0 funded rounds. I'm specifically in Peterborough which is a very working-class area and the couples I know have really struggled to afford IVF.
Some have used cheaper clinics that offer short-protocol only IVF. Others have gone abroad because even with flights and hotels, it still works out cheaper. After a year of trying, my husband and I were told we have unexplained infertility (we've been trying for 2 years 6 months). Since our diagnosis, we've been saving for an Access Fertility package because they work out cheaper than pay-as-you-go options and you can get money back if you have no success. It's by no means easy to save such large amounts of money but it's been doable for us.
Like someone else has already said, I would try not to worry about it now because you don’t need an extra worry!
We’ve just had our third round and I’m reluctant to jump to a private clinic because the costa scare me to be honest but I’m sure there would be lots of benefits of not being in the NHS system.
One of the reasons we’ve stayed with the NHS is because the cost is about £4000 plus the drugs (at least £400), compared to private clinic costs which a bit more. We also love our clinic and the staff!
We had our first round for free but didn’t even get to fertilisation stage unfortunately and that was our free round used up. So currently have paid for 2 rounds and will be paying for another shortly - we’ve put off decorating / buying furniture / the house needs new carpet / plastering but we’re just saving for ivf at the moment - it is important I think to still do things though, not to save every penny because I think that could drive you insane!
We’ve paid for both rounds using a credit card and just chipped away at the payments when we can. It is disheartening to see you still owe especially when a round hasn’t worked but those interest free credit cards have definitely helped us!
I was ‘lucky’ hubby was made redundant just before us starting treatment. However we chose to go abroad which helped tons. Our ivf with donor eggs was £4K in Prague £5k total with flights and accommodation x
Was just one reason we went abroad it’s completely anonymous plus there was no real waiting list at time they also didn’t seem interested in my bmi (was 12.5 stone at time) whereby my local clinic wanted me to drop weight even though we were private cos of my age x
As a financial analyst I have "spreadsheeted this topic to death" so I am so glad you asked the question. The how people afford it is as much a question of how you approach IVF as much as how much money you have/ financial arrangement you have. I recommend anyone starting their journey, or those further in the journey, to get familiar with the following truisms and concepts:
1) No matter what age - get mentally prepared that the investigation piece - "before you get anywhere close to an IVF cycle" - will cost you circa £1,500 - £2,000. That is because you need to do the mandatory regulatory blood test, plus sperm analysis, plus hycosy, or other "basic plumbing" checks. It is worthwhile to do the basic hycosy or aqua scans to cancel out any complications that might have directed your treatment plan to a different direction. However, only do the basic blood tests 3 months before your IVF cycle start, otherwise the clinic will force you to do them again (for regulatory reasons). On that note, also know that you don't need to repeat the blood tests for 2 YEARS, even if you change a clinic. This is often little known by clinics and they try to cash out on you to do them again. As long as you keep the original test reports and they were done by an accredited laboratory, you will not need to do these again. This has saved me lots of money when transferring between clinics. Also, smear tests, thyroid test..do all these with your GP - do not cost you a thing in the UK's wonderful NHS. Indeed, get your thyroid checked and ensure the TSH is under 2.0 before you go anywhere...it needs to be under or at 2.0 for optimal pregnancy. The clinic is not being annoying to delay you, it is genuenly for your own benefit. If you discover it is above 2.0, get to see a thyroid specialist as a one off (circa £175 per visit) to prescribe you some meds to lower it. (No value in doing this with your GP, they don't know enough about thyroid and its impact on getting pregnant.) Always ask your potential clinic to email you absolutely everything they want you to do up-front, and see if you can do those somewhere else cheaper. They can't say no to you going to get the test elsewhere and then providing them with the piece of paper. Also, you can get all of this info before doing a consultation meeting and paying for it.
2) If you begin your journey before you are 40 years old - "happy days!!!" - this will be much cheaper? Why, the bundle deals on offer (in the UK and elsewhere) provide money back guarantees to those under 40 years of age. It would be silly not to use on of those packages if you are under 40. Yes, they do pay out. Basically, you pay them a bundle or enter into a finance agreement, and then if it does not work out, the package is effectively an insurance deal where you are refunded the money you have paid. I started at 40 years and one month as NHS took so long and then declined me....you can understand my frustration with getting my timing wrong The two prominent package providers in the UK are "Access Fertility" and "Assured Fertility"...if you are like me who goes through the finer detail of their respective terms and conditions, "Access Fertility" come on top, just slightly. (That is a different post altogether.) These two now cover lots of clinics and tend to do well in which they select so they have already pre-selected those with good performance.
3) If you are over 40 years -> it is still worthwhile (financially) to do this with a bundle. You may ask why?
1) If you don't have money in savings, financing options are available, but also and more importantly,
2) because most people don't get ANY RESULTS before they have done 3 rounds of IVF. That is the statistical sad truth. You need to embark on this with the mindset that it will take you 3 rounds. After that, you can then make up your mind if you still want to keep going but statistically it takes 3 rounds. (Often....1st round you figure what drugs work... 2nd round the optimal stimulation length and drugs...and 3rd is the round where hopefully you have either both or one, the drugs and stimulation , figured out. Clearly, this can take much longer depending on what else is going on )
3) The bundles are more cost effective than trying to do "one cycle at a time". I can expand on this as I have worked on costings in detail across most players in the UK market but at headline, always go with a bundle if you can. For example - At the beginning you don't know if you can produce many blastocyst so you don't know how many you will have for freeze, and consequently how many FET transfers you might need to budget. The bundles provide unlimited FET transfers and this is worth its weight in gold -> it providers you more options further down the treatment cycle for decisions which then do not need to be dominated by "the purse")
Doing it in the UK or abroad? Before the bundles and specially before the Corona virus, the cheaper answer was "Spain" or a few other places with equal tech and team skills as in the UK. However, now with the Corona virus that is no longer the case. "Time is as much of value as money".
Which Bundle? If 'Access Fertility" or "Assured Fertility", or similar, are still too expensive for you, you can go for Cambridge IVF that have a slightly cheaper bundle but there are lots of reasons I would not go that route (such as this bundle only seem to have one drug available and you can't switch meds across your bundle cycles - 😯- and they don't transfer at weekends -> which is a basic big no for choosing any clinic. The staff are absolutely lovely though).
I thought of everything I could to save money and be successful at the same time. We borrowed some of the money from my mother in law. We are from the US and flew to Europe because it's 1/8 the price of the US. We could not have tried even once in the US with the cost.
I tried my own eggs one time and at the same time used a donor to get more eggs just in case. I didn't want to keep flying back and spending more money trying to get my own eggs to work when I knew it was a longshot. I accepted it was better to cut our financial loss and use a donor. However the donor didn't do well either and now we are adopting an embryo to have amongst our 2 embryos when I go back for implantation. 40 eggs between myself and donor and only 2 made it to 5 days. Anyway, that's my story. I hope it goes well for you, good luck!
Chronically working and paying debt. But don't worry about it till you are there. Hopefully you won't need to spend so much. It is an expensive emotional and an.anxiety prone pursuit. But worth it if it works.
I paid for 2 rounds totalling £15k with my divorce money. Other than that I think I’d have had a loan. It is a very expensive process and like you I don’t know how people keep paying out. But I suppose if people want something so bad they’ll literally do anything. My partner and I agreed 3 rounds was our absolute maximum.I know the NHS in our area give you 3 rounds for free but there’s a 2 year waiting list and within that time they want you to look at losing weight, stop drinking, stop smoking, change your diet, take metformin etc. Which is why we went private.
I think it was because my treatment was straight forward if there is such a word for IVF - I was one of the unexplained infertility crew. But my eggs looked good and my partners sperm was also very healthy. I was lucky in lots of ways. But I can’t rate the fertility clinic we were at enough xx
We were also unexplained fertility, our embryos were top quality according to the clinic 🤷♀️, but we still needed to do 3 rounds, our last being a donor round, all 3 rounds costing a total of £40,000 - so that’s why I say it gets really really good!
Hey, we weren’t lucky enough to qualify for an nhs funded cycle so credit cards all the way! We found a good clinic who offer a 3 cycle package, we just pay extra for the meds and FET. We pay as much off the credit card as we can each month and use it purely for ivf. Good luck with your journey x
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I think the initial payment was just under £9k for 3 cycles which you pay up front and the meds are different each time depending on what you have. Then the FET is extra each cycle at £1,330 using our own eggs and sperm. Trigger injection is normally £50, tbh, I’m not counting money wise, but I think we’ve been quite lucky costwise and we made the decision that it’s what we want to do so the cost is what it is. We both chip away at the credit card and where the cost is small we pay out of our bank, we only put the FET or meds on the CC. Find a cycle which offers multi cycles, it works out cheaper especially if it doesn’t work first time round xx
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The two prominent package providers in the UK are "Access Fertility" and "Assured Fertility"...if you are like me who goes through the finer detail of their respective terms and conditions, "Access Fertility" come on top, just slightly. (That is a different post altogether.) These two now cover lots of clinics and tend to do well in which they select so they have already pre-selected those with good performance.
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