This is what $3,200 worth of medications looks like.
My husband came home Wednesday to this sight and joked, "Let's open a pharmacy!"
Almost looks like we could.
And don't worry, eagle-eyed IVFers, I only pulled half of my Cetrotide kits out of the fridge for two minutes to take this photo :)
It took a lot of back and forth — many phone calls and emails — with two different pharmacies to get this loot ordered. We applied to two discount programs and priced out the meds multiple ways (with insurance, without insurance, with discounts applied, etc.) in order to find the best price. Our fertility clinic estimated that the medications for one round of IVF would cost somewhere between $3,000-$6,000. The initial estimates we received were near the upper end of that range, about $5,500. I still can't believe how much we were able to get those first quotes down and I'm honestly thankful for my nagging annoying tenacious personality, that I continued to check every option and take copious notes. I actually asked the pharmacy rep to check the final total three times because I was in such a state of disbelief. Suddenly the more expensive pharmacy (by $300) was the cheaper pharmacy (by $400) and it was like I was at an auction; I didn't want to lose the bid! $3,200 going once, going twice, and SOLD to the surprised infertile woman on the phone! While we didn't plan to order the medications that day, Greg agreed we needed to get while the getting was good.
As I unpacked the huge box Wednesday morning and took an inventory of what I'd received, everything began to feel incredibly real. My stomach turned as the thought crossed my mind: All of this is going into me. Three different injections (well, four if you count the HCG trigger shot), a couple kinds of pills, and progesterone to insert, uh, vaginally. (Thrilling!)
I knew what IVF entailed, I'd attended the injection training workshop, I'd reviewed the prescription. But seeing it all sprawled out on a table in your living room is a whole different thing.
As nervous as I am, I'm trying to feel excited, too. At the very least, I feel more prepared to start our first round next month. And with all these boxes of medications and packages of syringes staring us in the face, we surely won't postpone again. Fingers crossed!
This cycle of IVF happened SO quickly for me that I didn't even call around to get different quotes on medication. If we ever do another cycle I probably will do that. The cost of everything is just staggering. I honestly just try not to think about it too much... You are going to be great! Message me on Facebook anytime. Doing the injections actually isn't that bad at all. I haven't had to do any shots through the muscle yet, I think those would be a totally different ball game, but so far none of mine have hurt too bad (other than the menopur stings a bit going in) and the needles are SO small and SO sharp they really do pierce the skin incredibly easily!
ReplyDeleteWe only called two places because it just would have been too burdensome and stressful to reach out to every pharmacy out there! It was just a lot of back and forth with those two pharmacies :) I'm sure I'll get used to the injections I'm just nervous of course to start! Instead of making me feel better, the fact that they "pierce the skin incredibly easily" gives me the eebie jeebies! LOL
DeleteWould love to know which pharmacy you ended up using and which discounts you applied for! That would help a ton! My husband and I are getting ready to start our IVF cycle next month - here in the Bay Area as well. Thanks! Love your story, congrats on your pregnancy!
ReplyDeleteHi Kristine! Thank you! We used Freedom Fertility Pharmacy. We called for price quotes from just two different pharmacies (MDR and Freedom Fertility), to save our sanity. There are so many pharmacies out there! Each had different discount programs that we were eligible for: the First Steps program with MDR and Compassionate Care program for Freedom Fertility. However, we ended up not using the discounts through either program! Initially I didn't think our insurance would cover any of our medication costs, so I wasn't checking. But when my hubby found out our insurance would cover something (can't remember what) through MDR, I decided to run our insurance with Freedom and the total cost came out even less than with the Compassionate Care program. So my advice would be to ask lots of questions, get price quotes, compare the costs with the discount programs vs insurance and jump on the lowest offer! :) Our initial price quotes without discounts or insurance was around $5500 and in the end we paid about $3300. Good luck! Baby dust to you! xoxo
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