I wanted to make a wellness appointment at Women's Birth and Wellness Center as well as ask questions about their offering IUIs. I now have an appointment for early March for an annual physical/blood work. As for the IUIs, they offer insemination by a midwife for $250 per IUI. The sperm would be delivered to me at home and then using OPKs for timing, I'd call them when I was ready and come in for the procedure. They're available 24/7/365 so their hours or availability isn't a concern. However, my worry is that the sperm count won't be adequate or that I may need extra monitoring that they can't provide in which I would have to change providers. They also don't provide storage, so each time I would do an IUI, I would have to be super careful of the timing so that the sperm would arrive on time for insemination. The timing and my anxiety around it may be work going to a RE for. A RE would also be a better choice for any monitoring, andrology (to test the sperm itself), and medicated cycles. On the other hand, I may not need any of those, and all of those things will cost more at the RE than what I would get at the WBWC. Essentially, the center is low-intervention and thereby, low-tech.
My other concern is that while I want to be smart with the money I spend, I do want this to work. It's a lot of money regardless. When you add it up it's:
$100 bank registration
$30 for donor long profile
$650 for Identity-Release Sperm
$225 shipping
+$250 IUI
$1125 per cycle + $130 for one time fees
Expensive, yes? Well that's just the beginning. If you add monitoring, medication, injectibles, or go on to IVF or donor eggs, the cost can get really expensive really quickly! We're talking $20,000+ in cost. So even though $1125 per cycle seems expensive, when compared with more interventions or private adoption (another post for another day), unmedicated/unmonitored IUIs are fairly cheap.
Me again! Just thought I'd let you know that I go to an RE and they have free storage there so I bought 6 vials at once and thus only had 1 shipping charge. It costs $254 per insemination and that includes the analysis so I know how many sperm and chasing down my egg! Like you I'm doing this without medication and relying on my body to perform as it should. I figure 3 cycles like this and then I'll consider more. Anyways... my point is to look into an RE and the costs... if you have health insurance upgrade it if possible and then any monitoring/meds will prob be covered. You'd still have to pay for swimmers and IUI's yourself though.
ReplyDeleteVery good points! I do need to check out the REs here. Especially because the timing does make me nervous. Storage would be nice. Then they would be ready to go and safe until I was ready. Thanks for the input! It helps!
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