Because here’s the thing, every body is different. At first they go with the “average IVF woman’s” level of hormones to produce as many eggs as possible. Will it work for you? Who knows! They check blood work every week, and then at the end of the cycle they surgically remove anything that looks matures and try to fertilize. Say 12 eggs are retrieved, maybe 7 are successfully fertilized. Then they incubate for a few weeks - maybe 4 make it through and are candidates for surgical implant, (if so, you’re lucky and they’ll try one or two max for implant at a time). Or maybe all of them don’t make it.
But if you don’t have any viable options, well we try for round two with slightly tweaked hormones. Did round two not work? Time for round three with slightly different hormone levels/timing. (We learned so much about your specific body chemistry!)
Even after all of that, say you get a successful implantation - you’re now pregnant. All costs for prenatal care, hospital birth - that’s an add on to the $75k you’ve spent for IVF. And because humans are weird, there’s no guarantee with IVF that you or the baby will survive and be healthy!
North of $25k… And that’s for the first round.
Because here’s the thing, every body is different. At first they go with the “average IVF woman’s” level of hormones to produce as many eggs as possible. Will it work for you? Who knows! They check blood work every week, and then at the end of the cycle they surgically remove anything that looks matures and try to fertilize. Say 12 eggs are retrieved, maybe 7 are successfully fertilized. Then they incubate for a few weeks - maybe 4 make it through and are candidates for surgical implant, (if so, you’re lucky and they’ll try one or two max for implant at a time). Or maybe all of them don’t make it.
But if you don’t have any viable options, well we try for round two with slightly tweaked hormones. Did round two not work? Time for round three with slightly different hormone levels/timing. (We learned so much about your specific body chemistry!)
Even after all of that, say you get a successful implantation - you’re now pregnant. All costs for prenatal care, hospital birth - that’s an add on to the $75k you’ve spent for IVF. And because humans are weird, there’s no guarantee with IVF that you or the baby will survive and be healthy!