I Feel Like a Ping-Pong Ball

Earlier this week we went to the fertility clinic for them to do more blood work on me.  They explained it as a "hindsight" test.  I guess they can look back and learn what we can do differently on my next cycle.  The visit at the clinic was not supposed to be long, but of course it went longer, me and all of my questions could have kept us there all day!  I asked if we could speak with a nurse to go over all of my test results again.  A kind nurse sat down with us for an hour an explained and re-explained everything to me again and answered all of my questions.  I liked talking to her because she had struggled with infertility also and could honestly relate to us.  I asked her to talk to me as a mother, as a woman who has struggled, and as a nurse.  She gave us a lot of options and it felt like we could actually do something at the clinic and be successful with it. 

After speaking with the nurse we went into another office and spoke with the billing/financial lady.  Now that was depressing!  The clinic offers all sorts of "packages" in regards to in vitro.  Some are as little as $9,000 and as high as $20,000.  BUT and there is a BIG BUT-- They have extra premiums you have to pay on top of those base prices.  For example, anesthetist fees, ICSI (where they actually inject the swimmer into the egg and they do that prior to each IVF attempt,) embryo storage, etc, etc, etc.  That price also doesn't include all of the many many medications that I have to be on to prep my body for the IVF and those can be as little as $2,000 up to who knows how much. 

One of the options discussed at the the clinic was embryo adoption.  That is where you adopt and then implant another couples embryo into your body.  I know it sounds strange and at first we wouldn't have been open to it, but what is the difference between that and regular adoption.  Now I know the explanation of the adoption to the child would be a little tricky, but we'd figure it out.  Embryo adoption starts at around $7,000 which is much more affordable, but then again there are a lot of extra premiums tacked on.

I felt like I was caught in a ping-pong game all day (and just in general too.)  One one side was something that seemed like good news and on the other side was the catch.  I would hear something wonderful and then the catch would come and come quickly.  Here are a few examples:

• In Vitro is $20,000.  The catch, all those stinking premiums.
• Embryo adoption.  The catch, you only get one shot at it and the embryos are usually low quality.  The success rate of embryo adoption actually taking is very low.
• Your body can easily carry a baby.  The catch, chances of actually getting pregnant is a miracle.

I could go on and on with the list, but I won't.