Couples under infertility treatments pays over $5,000 in average, based on data collected from San Francisco clinics. These expenses include clinic visits, medications, and other related fees.
It was not surprising that the costs for Invitro Fertilization or IVF was a lot expensive with an average cost of $19,000 and even goes beyond this amount as treatment progresses in the medication cycle.
Mostly, as soon as doctors find out what needs to be done for the wife to get pregnant, couples are keen to determine how much it will cost, according to Male Reproductive Health Director Dr. James Smith, from the University of the California.
Smith and his colleagues surveyed 332 couples who had a consultation in one of the eight fertility offices in the study's first assessment. Each couple was given an expense diary intended to record each expense they make related to the treatment.
After that, they interviewed the same couples thrice in the next 1.5 years regarding the expenses they had incurred. These included cash spent on consultation, clinical procedures, medication and other expense items like parking and travel.
After the monitoring period, the researchers calculated the average expenses of fertility treatments and got $5,338. The amounts vary depending on the treatment types they chose. Basic one-time treatment like advice on timing sex and uterine fibroid removal cost as low as $595. However, IVF, the preferred treatment by most couples, costs at least $19,234.
Additionally, expenses could get more expensive if couples had to take more time in getting pregnant or if they had to undergo more cycles of treatment and medication.
Based on the data of the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology, there were 150, 000 cycles of IVF treatments conducted just for 2011.
The study was published in the Sept. issue of the Journal of Urology.
