Financing fertility treatments...

saraeric · October 2013

Hi Ladies, I know this is pretty personal (isn't everything on this board!) but I'm trying to figure out our next step in TTC. We'll hit the year mark next week and I'm doing my third (and final for now) round of Clomid with my OBGYN. I had no response on 50mg, late O on 100mg, and so far (CD19) no O on 150mg. I want to go see an RE, and while we have enough saved for treatments, our insurance doesn't cover anything and I don't want to totally deplete our emergency fund. Money has always really stressed me out and knowing how pricey treatment can be is not making this decision any easier. I've seen fertility loan programs and wasn't sure if anybody on this board had used them or not. Just curious to see what other people do as TTTC expenses can really add up quickly...

lindsayandjamie · October 2013

I don't have anything to add except good luck!

katieg520 · October 2013

lindsayandjamie said:

I don't have anything to add except good luck!

Ditto.... but I know that if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't think twice about financing something like that. People finance all kinds of things, and IMO, a baby/child would be the best thing to ever finance if that were your option.

amccul20 · October 2013

My husband and I don't have insurance coverage for any of our infertility treatments. We paid for everything OOP and didn't get loans. that said, I would have sold anything and everything to get pregnant...so if it took a loan to do it I would have been all over it.

I will say shop around though. different fertility doctors have different prices for procedures so check it all out before you start the process with your RE.

spongebobsquarepanties · October 2013

What I will say is that if you are uncomfortable spending all of your savings right now, maybe you could wait until you have a bit more saved up. I know it's not advice anyone wants to hear, but I think you need to be comfortable with the financial commitment you are about to make.

I do think it's important not to count your chickens before they're hatched, so wait to see what the RE has to say. There may be cheaper options the re would like to try first that maybe you will feel more comfortable with financially.

spongebobsquarepanties · October 2013

Also just wanted to add that if you have low debt and feel comfortable taking out a loan, I see no problem with it. Best of luck to you!

akcrrr · October 2013

I agree with PPs. You need to speak with the RE first to see what your options are. If then you need to take out a loan to do it...I definitely would!

LittleLady77 · October 2013

So we have crazy complex finances with a house, investments and a business in a high cost of living area. We ended up paying 30K out of pocket for everything this year (no insurance coverage). I feel like we looked into tons of options but this is what we ended up with:

- Paid 10k out of our savings
- We each put another 10K on credit cards we have separately. Then we transferred each balance to a new card we each opened that had 18 months interest free balance transfers.

We are now slowly paying down the 20K interest free over 18 months. We did the math to make sure we don't go over 18 months and we have enough in savings to pay it off ASAP if for some reason they start charging us interest. Obviously this plan could go terribly wrong if you don't have great credit or the money to pay the cards down if they get expensive.

This is the only solution we found to finance IVF without paying a huge lump sum out of savings and not pay interest.

Paying for infertility sucks. Here is a link to Resolve's Family Act: http://www.resolve.org/get-involved/family-act-of-2011.html It's a proposed bill that will help couples paying for fertility treatments out of pocket.

RockABye · October 2013

We have paid OOP for everything. We looked into financing with injectables, but there's a minimum amount and it can't include the medications. All together, we met the minimum but without the meds, we fell short. So cash it was. If we end up moving to ivf eventually, we may look into financing a portion of it then.

If you only have a few thousand to finance and there's a minimum you don't meet, you might have to go the personal loan route vs fertility loan programs. Good luck to you!!

ILoveRedVino · October 2013

We are completely OOP as well.

Our clinic teams with a third party for financing and packages for IVF. Anything lesser than IVF has to be paid upfront.

We considered it but ended up just paying out of our savings account. I couldn't imagine IVF being unsuccessful and still being responsible for the monthly payment.

seahorse01 · October 2013

ILoveRedVino said:

We are completely OOP as well. Our clinic teams with a third party for financing and packages for IVF. Anything lesser than IVF has to be paid upfront. We considered it but ended up just paying out of our savings account. I couldn't imagine IVF being unsuccessful and still being responsible for the monthly payment.

Welcome to my world.

amandaf6383 · October 2013

seahorse01 said:

ILoveRedVino said:

We are completely OOP as well. Our clinic teams with a third party for financing and packages for IVF. Anything lesser than IVF has to be paid upfront. We considered it but ended up just paying out of our savings account. I couldn't imagine IVF being unsuccessful and still being responsible for the monthly payment.

Welcome to my world.

That fucking sucks.

LooneyLife · October 2013

ILoveRedVino said:
We are completely OOP as well.

Our clinic teams with a third party for financing and packages for IVF. Anything lesser than IVF has to be paid upfront.

We considered it but ended up just paying out of our savings account. I couldn't imagine IVF being unsuccessful and still being responsible for the monthly payment.

We didn't really think this through. We put it on our credit card for the points and of course the bill came last week. Fun.

LittleLady77 · October 2013

LooneyLife said:

We put it on our credit card for the points and of course the bill came last week. Fun.

Can you transfer the balance to a new card that doesn't have any interest? That should save you some money. This is the best website to compare cards that I've found so far: http://www.creditcards.com/

LooneyLife · October 2013

LittleLady77 said:

LooneyLife said:

We put it on our credit card for the points and of course the bill came last week. Fun.

Can you transfer the balance to a new card that doesn't have any interest? That should save you some money. This is the best website to compare cards that I've found so far: http://www.creditcards.com/

Oh, we make sure to have the money set aside before treatment, we just use the credit card to get points. I just meant that it was loads of fun getting the ivf bill while you're waiting to miscarry.

Flamingo86 · October 2013

I'm pretty anti-debt, so personally I would do whatever possible to avoid taking out a loan. Every situation is different though.

I know that my RE clinic offers a program that gives you some of your money back if you don't have a successful pregnancy after a certain number (3 I think?) IVF cycles. I'm not terribly familiar with the details though. It would definitely be worth asking around at a few clinics if possible.

Best of luck with however you choose to proceed. Also, I second PPs that depending on your diagnosis, there may be more affordable options available to you. For example, IUI is much less costly than IVF.

saraeric · October 2013

Thanks for all of your advice! I was able to set up an appointment for a consult in two weeks. We will have both of our cars paid off in December, and our only other debt is our mortgage so I think we will just roll what our car payment was into an account to pay for fertility stuff. I've been diagnosed with PCOS so I know our we have quite a few options in terms of treatment. Trying not to stress or worry to much about the unknown.

Flamingo86 · October 2013

LooneyLife said:

We are completely OOP as well. Our clinic teams with a third party for financing and packages for IVF. Anything lesser than IVF has to be paid upfront. We considered it but ended up just paying out of our savings account. I couldn't imagine IVF being unsuccessful and still being responsible for the monthly payment.
We didn't really think this through. We put it on our credit card for the points and of course the bill came last week. Fun.

So sorry @looneylife

LittleLady77 · October 2013

LooneyLife said:

LooneyLife said:

We put it on our credit card for the points and of course the bill came last week. Fun.

Can you transfer the balance to a new card that doesn't have any interest? That should save you some money. This is the best website to compare cards that I've found so far: http://www.creditcards.com/
Oh, we make sure to have the money set aside before treatment, we just use the credit card to get points. I just meant that it was loads of fun getting the ivf bill while you're waiting to miscarry.

Sorry dear. I can't imagine

Smiley-1980 · October 2013

We financed our IVF. It sucks but she is so worth it. If it didn't work that would have been really hard though.

Amberley18 · October 2013

Definitely speak with the RE first and determine your options. Sometimes they will give small discounts for paying upfront. Have you spoke with you insurance about Femara? Since IF is an off label use, sometimes It is covered and your body may respond better than clomid.

When we did Clomid, I was monitored and did it in conjunction with Ovidrell (ovulation trigger shot) to force me to O when my follies were mature. The Ovidrell was a little pricey, $115 each month but nothing in comparison to the thousands people can easily spend on IUIs and IVF.

Good luck.

Financing fertility treatments...

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