Did you ever do the repeat pg loss panel? If you can pg on your own and you find that you have a blood clotting something or other, it might not be worth getting into full fledged ivf debt – just up the b6, b12, folic and spread ‘em (I kid, I kid – kinda).

So… first find out about whether you have diagnostic stuff covered. If it is, do every possible test. Especially all sorts of advanced semen analysis.

Then, well… I’d say go ahead to IVF, but that means only one shot, possibly with an extra FET thrown in.

Before making a decision, find out from your RE’s office exactly what the charges would be for each protocol (the financial coordinators often have some sort of price list available). It’ll be tricky to figure out whether and at what point you get the self-pay “discount” that a lot of clinics offer (really just the actual price not inflated for insurance purposes). Usually the financial coordinators are chock full of helpful info if you can catch them on the phone (they seem awfully busy).

At my clinic, I was allowed to finance IVF, so I had to pay $2000 up front, and the rest will be paid in monthly installments of about $250. You have to completely pay off all previous cycles before you’re allowed to cycle again though. This plan did not include the meds, which had to be paid for up front. Or the hospital bill, which I haven’t yet recieved, but normally those will allow for some sort of installment plan too if you talk to the hospital’s financial office.

I’m pretty confident in recommending that you skip clomid/femara/IUI because it’s not that much cheaper than injectables/IUI but with much lower success rates. But I don’t know what to tell you about injectables/IUI vs IVF. Dr. Doctor sounds like she’d be able to take the time to fully discuss it with you once all the test results are in. It really depends on the SA results and how well she thinks you’re likely to respond to injectable meds.

Sorry I couldn’t give you a more clear answer.

I won’t assume you have been keeping track of what Jerry and I have gone thru and the insurance- and lack thereof, -nightmare. The problem that we didn’t know we had until we were well into the game was count and motility (C&A for future ref). After we went thru 6 mos of trying naturally to get pg again after the MC, Jerry had a SA done. Some of his numbers were borderline low, but not enough for anyone to get concerned about, so the 1st IUI on Follistim took place. It wasn’t until the point-of-no-return that I was told that Jerry’s count was “kind of” low. Due to some miscommunication on my part, Jerry ended up abstaining somewhere around 10 days. Yes, that’s right. 10. whole. damn. days. Alas, IUI #1 failed.

We had to skip the next cycle due to overstim. The following cycle we went for IUI #2, again on Follistim, but dialed up. We made sure everyone was on the same page and Jerry’s abstinence before the IUI was only 3 days. Not only were we told again that the C&A was low, but it was almost 1/2 of what it was on IUI #1. Not good.

So NOW we find out that we should have just started with IVF and skipped the whole bullshit process before which ended up taking a lovely 4 months out of our lives. And here we are on the cusp of an IVF that we have no insurance for but are tapping into the funds that were designated for the house. The IUIs were not covered either, so instead of budgeting for, say an add’l $9000, we have to budget for the full $12,000 (plus the $3000 my ole’ cooter already ate up).

So, to make a long story short, (yes, do please) if our scenerios were switched and even if the insurance max is $5000 I would bypass all the b.s. and jump right into IVF…but be careful that your insurance doesn’t have a clause that requires you to try clomid or an IUI cycle first. Some do.

What sucks more is I feel like when I complain about how much we have spent and what we will be spending that I’m putting a price on a viable pregnancy. That’s not at all what we’re doing and anyone who’s been there gets that.

I would also advise you to look into “financing”. Some RE facilities are enrolled with certain programs that allow this. Ours doesn’t and we must fork over the cash first; PLUS I’m providing the peep show. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Yes, I rambled, but I hope this can help you. It’s going to really hinge on how Nearly’s SA stacks up. BTW, I would ask Dr. Doctor if some of the diagnostic tests they are talking about doing can be done in relationship to your MC, not IF. For ex., our HSG was completely covered b/c they used a diagnosis of MC, not IF. That may get you a little more bang for your buck.