Insurance and IVF
- Thread starter simply1
- Start date
I have to be honest, myself and others in the medical field I talk to often go back and forth on the IVF and insurance question.
On one hand I’ve seen people go into about dire financial straights paying for IVF which is both wrong and should never happen for medical needs.
On the other hand this is absolutely baffling to me and many others as there are many kids out there who need a loving home without the needs of IVF and the issues it often brings.
I’ve always thought that having adoption services as a benefit would make far more sense but I also have a huge bias because we are child free by choice and always have been so the concept of needed a child based off your own genetics has never crossed our mind.
I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences though and was honestly surprised how many people on here have gone through the process.
On one hand I’ve seen people go into about dire financial straights paying for IVF which is both wrong and should never happen for medical needs.
On the other hand this is absolutely baffling to me and many others as there are many kids out there who need a loving home without the needs of IVF and the issues it often brings.
I’ve always thought that having adoption services as a benefit would make far more sense but I also have a huge bias because we are child free by choice and always have been so the concept of needed a child based off your own genetics has never crossed our mind.
I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences though and was honestly surprised how many people on here have gone through the process.
I’m not going to go into our journey at this point, however adoption is not an easy process either and especially if you’re looking for a baby or toddler. Imagine having a child taken out of your home and placed back with the original bad parent. Stuff like that.
Totally agree, that’s why I would love adoption assistant services as a benefit, not simple at all
I'm adopted and I've seen stigma around adoption change a lot since I was a little kid, mostly for the better. My parents were quite brilliant the way they raised my sibling and I with the knowledge of it. My mom made her own custom children's books with lots of pictures and it was just a story we read with our other children's books at bedtime so it seemed we "always knew" and were always extra proud of it. Absolutely zero shame or awkwardness.
Fantastic parenting. We looked long and hard at adoption and it wasn’t about not being genetically related, it was the rest of the process and difficulty for us. Those type of books are much more prevalent now, your mom was ahead of the curve.
I was in meetings and couldn't think fast enough but I thought of a person who did both knees due to high school football. It was to create easier movement. They weren't going to die or be in unbearable pain but would continue losing mobility over time. But yeah, you get where I'm going there.
We went through four years of treatment before doing IVF in the fifth. (Female-factor.)
There were some things that we could sneak past insurance. We had one IUI covered, and Clomid rounds. No subsequent IUI was covered. I had some endometriosis removed as covered; during that surgery, my reproductive endocrinologist also did ovarian drilling that was supposed to help with some of the cysts. (It didn't.)
We did one stim cycle all uncovered by insurance, I got OHSS and had to be drained (uncovered), we had to freeze our five best embryos (cryogenic freezing was not covered), and then frozen cycles for each of our three pregnancies (also uncovered).
I changed insurances about a year before our last FET. My new insurance covered a portion of the freezing and FET up to $1000 - it was a small drop in the bucket, but it helped. It was either do the FET with partial payment or pay another year of freezing.
There were some things that we could sneak past insurance. We had one IUI covered, and Clomid rounds. No subsequent IUI was covered. I had some endometriosis removed as covered; during that surgery, my reproductive endocrinologist also did ovarian drilling that was supposed to help with some of the cysts. (It didn't.)
We did one stim cycle all uncovered by insurance, I got OHSS and had to be drained (uncovered), we had to freeze our five best embryos (cryogenic freezing was not covered), and then frozen cycles for each of our three pregnancies (also uncovered).
I changed insurances about a year before our last FET. My new insurance covered a portion of the freezing and FET up to $1000 - it was a small drop in the bucket, but it helped. It was either do the FET with partial payment or pay another year of freezing.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Might as well. As a doctor, I recommend those during exams.
I totally understand this third paragraph, but the same is also true of couples who have babies without any reproductive assistance. They could also choose to adopt, but feel that they want to bring their own baby into the world, to experience the entire process, to come together as a couple in that very special way. Same thing for infertile couples.
There's also a sense of shame that men cannot understand that is felt by an infertile women. Our "job" is to make babies and take care of them, according to society. If you don't get married by a certain age, you receive rude questions. If you don't have babies in X number of years of marriage and/or a certain age, you receive rude questions. We are literally programmed from birth when we are given baby dolls and told to play house. We are made to feel incomplete if we cannot perform this very basic job with which we have been tasked, and when you combine that with (for many of us) a true love and adoration for children, it's a sense of loss so deep that it's physically painful.
Or... short version is just that it's honestly not anyone else's business, just like it's not mine if some dude needs boner pills.
That is a gross oversimplification of the situation - healthcare costs rise because that's how they get paid in full from insurance. You are contracted to charge a certain amount in order to receive a certain amount from a carrier, and that amount raises with inflation.
Sort of like how it wouldn't work if you allowed people to not have insurance and then decide to join after they are diagnosed with cancer.
This would not be up for discussion if not for the fact of the socialization (and long held myth that it's the woman's problem) you allude to. Same reason PT after a joint replacement and many many other procedures is standard and covered but during and after pregnancy is not.
