Fertility medications are expensive, especially the injectibles. A prescription for pills such as Clomid will cost about $50 per cycle. If this doesn’t work, your doctor will probably recommend one of the injectable medications. These are really expensive. For one cycle, the cost is approximately $2,000 per cycle.
For many couples, the high cost of fertility medications is not in the budget. As the economy worsens, couples are finding it even more difficult to afford the treatments and the cost of the drugs needed for the treatments to work.
The first step in affording fertility medications is to check with your insurance carrier. Some policies cover these drugs, but many do not cover some, if not all fertility medications. Some companies will cover certain medications, but not all. Others will cover injectibles for a limited number of cycles. Two seems to be a common number among companies. As most infertility patients know, two cycles is barely enough time to get the correct dosage sorted out.
Massachusetts and a few other states make this coverage mandatory for insurance companies. RESOLVE and other infertility groups are lobbying for similar laws in other states. They encourage their members and the general public to write to their state and federal governmental representatives to ask them to support legislation regarding infertility treatments.
In the meantime, real women are caught in a difficult situation. They want a baby and there are medications and procedures that may be effective for achieving pregnancy. But the drugs are so expensive that it can seem insurmountable.
Some women are turning to options other than their local pharmacy. Some are meeting up with other women they meet in support groups or on the internet. These women are using left over doses from other women. For example, women with left over ampules of the medications offer them to other women at a low price, as low as a few hundred dollars. The women then use these low cost meds in place of the prescription written by their doctor.
Others are ordering the medications online from other countries. Medical groups and drug companies are strongly advising women not to use either of these methods for obtaining the drugs they need but can’t afford. They cite problems with purity as the cause for concern. We can only hope they will soon offer women an alternative, in addition to their warnings.
Other couples are resorting to attempting to borrow or earn additional money to pay for the medications. These couples are selling valuables, taking home equity lines of credit and even borrowing from relatives to pay the drug bill.
Related Articles:
Fertility Medications: Gonadotropins
Paying for Infertility Treatments