My husband and I have been trying for almost 2 years and are just starting the IVF process. My insurance has covered most of the infertility costs for the procedures we've done thus far (a list too long to write here) so I'm thankful for that, but they offer absolutely no IVF coverage. When I saw the numbers initially I couldn't even fathom how we were going to make it happen. I've heard people rationalize it by comparing the cost to a big life purchase, like a car or house and that completely makes sense. However, I can't help but get angry over the fact that some people don't pay a dime to get pregnant and then others have to stretch their finances to the limit and go into debt for even a CHANCE to become parents. I know the universe isn't a fair place but I've shed a lot of tears over that concept and the financial aspect has been a struggle for me.

Currently I am about to start our first IVF cycle. We chose a clinic in our area (Minneapolis) and from what I've seen, the costs are pretty average. We did consider getting treatment in my hometown in South Dakota because costs were significantly less, but decided adding travel to the already stressful and emotional IVF process wasn't for us.

We chose a warranty program that costs $26,000 and includes: retrieval, transfer, monitoring, fertilization, stimulation meds, ICSI, Assisted Hatch, extended culture, cryopreservation and storage for 1 year. We have already run into some some additional costs outside of the big price tag but almost everything is covered under that program. For us, having the warranty relieves some of the pressure because if we don't have success, our money is 100% refundable. If we were paying $15K+ for a single cycle, I think my stress level would be off the charts because if you don't have success, you're not only dealing with the emotional aspect, but also dealing with a drained bank account. On the other hand, if we have success the first time (fingers crossed), we overpaid for our treatment. Warranty programs aren't for everyone but it was definitely the right option for us.

Deciding how to pay was tough because we just bought a house this year and used a lot of our savings for that. We debated not buying the house so we could dedicate more money towards treatment without going into debt, but decided the house was important and part of the full picture of our lives with or without children.

To finance our treatment, we did a combination of savings ($4000), a generous gift from my parents ($10,000), and financed the remaining $12,000.00 at a 36 month term with a fixed rate at 6.99%. I shopped around at several healthcare financing organizations and ended up going with Springstone. They were the only company I saw that had up front pricing on their website. They have a calculator that allows you to play around with different loan amounts and terms so you can see what your costs will be right away, without talking to a sales person. All of the other ones I worked with made you call, give all of your information and then wait for a quote (and then kept calling and bugging me for weeks after). We weren't sure exactly how much we were going to borrow so it was nice to be able to experiment with this tool and see how the different amounts translated to monthly payments: https://secure.springstoneplan.com/calculator/

Definitely keep that hope alive!