This may be the one area where the pain is hurt by both the male and the female. Whereas
the woman is concerned by every minute detail of her treatment, her partner
may suddenly come into life at this stage of the consultation with 'what's
the damage Doc?' You are looking at GBP3,000 per IVF in the UK. Happily the cost of drugs is included. Any add-on treatments like ICSI, GIFT or donor would increase this price further still. There could be some package deals available in some clinics where you may be able to book three IVFs for the price of two. But then, you are stuck with the hospital chosen and their terms and the cost should you happen to have GBP7,000 has to be paid up front. Oh, and should you get pregnant on the first attempt you won't get the rest of your money back! There is the NHS (see update below) Unfortunately, the NHS provision of infertility treatment in the UK is a lottery (still). Whether or not you get the funding you need depends entirely upon where you live. There is no national policy on infertility services and at the present it is given a very low priority by most Health Authorities. Even if you meet their increasing variable and restrictive criteria for patient selection the waiting list usually is long. What's more, do they stop at the first IVF leaving you to go private and do they cover the full expense involved and not leave you footing the drugs bill. Here's an email we sent which was read out on a talk show:- "This last email is from Bobby and Nikki in Ilford. Let us open the floodgates and allow all and sundry in and swamp the NHS (regarding foreigners using the hospitals) Maybe that way the government will sit up and listen. The wife and I wish we could have just one baby because we've been trying IVF for years. We wish that was available on the NHS. Paying for IVF is costing us a bomb." We have been trying to get the below message across on these radio talk shows also: NHS putting age limit on helping couples. not helpful. What they are forgetting is that these couples have reached that age limit already not by selfishness of putting their careers first but by perhaps marrying late like we did. Then what of the doctor who proposed endless preliminary tests during the early years which all proved negative, only to find out by the time the doctor recommends IVF, one has reached that cruel age limit. Do they wish us to start the expensive NHS IVF treatment without investigating other forms of cures? Maybe cheaper cures but due to that age deadline we're choosing to crack the nut with a sledgehammer! Age threshold needs to be raised, people are living longer. offering one free IVF go on the NHS maybe not worth it if we're limiting the number of embryos that is permissable to grow to two or one. This and many other reasons is why we and many couples who have approached us are opting to go abraod for IVF treatment. Medical tourism is like business outsourcing. No different. Britain is expensive and saddled with choking restrictions, They can carry on arranging the deckchairs as much as they like. Our ticket is already booked. Another area of concern is that we are told that we live in 'Rip-off Britain'. I'm afraid this may even affect us. Governing laws restrict the amount of embryos to be implanted in a woman to a maximum of three. And now we hear they are to reduce that to two! Simple maths tell us that at three embryos it will cost you GBP1,000 per embryo. Even more if we are only allowed two embryos. Current thinking is to let us have just the one embryo now. That's GBP3,000 per embryo! Going abroad for IVF could bring this price down. Certainly it will save you valuable time. If you had the option of implanting 6,9 or more embryos at once wouldn't you jump at the chance? Sure you would risk having multiple births but they can be selectively reduced. Then they say increasing the amount transferred wouldn't necessarily increase your chances, but try telling that to the couple who are paying them vast sums and who are increasingly desperate as time may not be on everyone's side. Oversea Prices. Now for some update. Seems the government read our website! So now the IVF treatment is free in the UK (after another year of discussion that is). If you are between 23 and 40 you are allowed 3 free IVF treatment on the NHS. How this will be ratified with which clinic is not certain as many of them are private. As with everything in the UK, one must queue up and that's to arrive at the hospital nevermind the waiting list! And that will take an age and by then we'll all be over 40! (Typical, 3 years later we UK citizens still await a decision on this; and we're not allowed the earlier mentioned three shots but just the one free IVF attempt!) Those clever clogs, might we add with kids of their own, have decided to restrict childless couples to 2 embryos only unless you're aged 40 and over in which case they allow you to use 3 of your embryos. How nice of them. Predictably british way of imposing choking restrictions on fine upstanding citizens. Who's to pay the future taxes if not tomorrow's babies? What say if you're under 40 and a veteran of many failed IVFs and not allowed to have 3 embryos implanted. Obviously a problem there without the govermental bodies handing out 'death sentences' with another round of 2 and not more implantation of one's own embryos. Still, they're paying for it! You would have thought getting babies out the door on first go would be cheaper. They giveth with one hand and taketh with another! To the wealthy I say go abroad. To the poor I say go abroad also after the free treatment over here of course. To the clinics who will ignore the draconian limitations I say good luck. The following is a rough guide to what clinics may charge (Prices (GBP) taken from Essex Fertility Centre, Holly House Hospital, Essex on 2000) Initial Consultation 105 Follow up Consultation 70 IVF 2,100 GIFT or GIFT/ET 2,400 ZIFT 2,800 ICSI with IVF 2,850 AIH 500 Assisted Hatching (in addition to cost of IVF) 450 Blastocyst (in addition to cost of IVF) 450 PESA/TESA 1,100 IUI 500 Laparoscopy 1,000 Hysteroscopy 850 Semen Assessment 50 Note: The cost of drugs is not included in the above table. They will range from around GBP600 to GBP1,000 depending on your requirements and dosage. Donor Costs Should you be fortunate (perhaps unfortunate) to go the egg donor route then the treatment costs gets ramped up a further GBP1-3,000 ontop of the IVF fees. If you're really lucky you may already have located your donor. This could be a family member or a friend though an anonymous donor would have additional benefits. Not for long though as the idiots in charge have anounced the end of anonimity for any donor wishing to donate semen or eggs. Hen's teeth just got kicked in the teeth! There are companies set up for a fast track route (or fast buck) you may wish to try as the waiting list for egg donors can be years. We heard from one such organisation. They aim to find you a donor from somebody (mainly in Europe) who shares her eggs for subsidising their treatment costs. You will be asked to contribute towards the donor's treatment fees, how much we don't know. You are looking to acheive 5 or 6 eggs. They usually give at least 50% of the eggs back to the original donor. The more she produces the more gets shared between you and her. You pay nearly GBP3,000 for this service which includes travel, hotel, local tourist info and assisting in communications between the two clinics and the donor. Then on top goes the donor's medical fees you contribute. (ouch) All this for a share in the egg count. Makes you think why settle for a few when you could have a dozen or two dozen eggs! Alternatively, for a grand (GBP1000) you could get 'cracking' for yourself by placing an ad in a womens magazine or local or national paper pleading for a donor. We heard this can get you results very quickly too. You can try posting leaflets and such and still save on money. Even more, why not go abroad for the complete works, IVF, donor etc all for GBP3,000 instead of GBP4-6,000 here in UK. Spare a thought for the Americans, (ok don't then!) as many migrate up north to Canada to get treatment, it's cheaper for them. Poor Canadians then! This is what I think Money Cures Surrogacy costs In the UK, assuming you find a surrogate that is, the costs for the IVF treatment is around GBP4,000. Then add on the surrogate's expenses of at least GBP10-15,000. A cheaper alternative would be to by-pass the expensive IVF procedure and find a surrogate who is willing to donate her own eggs then you can simply go about artificially inseminating her via a syringe with the intended father's sperm every other day for a week or so and this carries on for months until the surrogate gets pregnant and that's a big if as it could take a very long time or never at all. These costs can be at least doubled for our north american cousins. If that isn't fair then I suggest travelling abroad. Take your Surrogate to India, have the IVF done on her for as little as GBP1,500. Or select a surrogate in India and have the whole treatment costs and surrogate's fees for GBP14,000($28,000) summer2008 prices which includes the delivery of the baby(s). Plus one small matter of getting around the draconian, big brother, miniscule UK laws of being permitted to only have two, perhaps less now, embryos attached to you or the surrogate. That alone is reason enough to start packing one's bags. Happy days! Read about Surrogacy/IVF treatment abroad in India |
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