We've Moved

The IVF Club has now moved to a new website.

The new website is cleaner, neater and will make it easier for readers to leave comments and post information directly from the site to facebook, twitter and much more!

Starting from Monday 21st September, new posts will start to appear at www.theivfclub.com

Cost of IVF

IVF Costs in Australia

I always thought of IVF as expensive and while I still think it is, it is less expensive than in other countries. For example, in the United States IVF can cost up to around US $12,000.

This is pretty expensive when compared to the cost that Australians pay for IVF. For example, at a leading clinic in Melbourne Australia, the latest cost that I paid for IVF was around $6,900 excluding hospital costs. The hospital costs were $1,900 bringing the total cost of the treatment to AUD$8,800 (US$7,700). That's a massive saving of over $4,000 for Australian IVF patients.

My upfront costs to the clinic were approximately $5,000 including medications. The difference in the cost is explained by the fact that the clinic and the health insurance fund does not charge the patient the full amount and waits to receive the rest of their payment via the government's Medicare system.

Fortunately, my private health insurance covered the hospital costs. I received $3,700 back from Medicare six weeks after egg collection as I had reached my *Medicare Safety Net* threshold. So my total out of pocket cycle cost was $1,300. Expensive yes, but not as expensive as some of my overseas readers who do not get any rebates back.

Interestingly, the Government has announced that they will be revisiting the limits on the Medicare Safety Net threshold for IVF and may cap IVF limits. Details of this are not fully known but what is clear, is that the cost of IVF will be going up.

For overseas readers who do not understand the health system in Australia, the Medicare Safety Net effectively means that I can claim money back from the government from this calendar year because I had already spent a fortune on IVF and was entitled to a rebate.

Tips for Successful Outcomes

Vitamin D Levels Could Predict IVF Outcomes

An interesting study has indicated that women have higher chances of achieving pregnancy if they have high levels of vitamin D in their serum and follicular fluid (FF) after IVF-embryo transfer.

The results of this study was published recently in the online edition of the journal, Fertility and Sterility. The study was conducted on 84 infertile women who were undergoing IVF to assess the link between IVF outcomes with vitamin D concentration.

Whilst vitamin D levels in the Follicular Fluid were inversely associated with body mass index, after adjustments, scientists observed significantly higher rates of clinical pregnancy and implantation when Vitamin D levels were higher.

This suggests that vitamin D supplements may enhance the outcome for infertile patients undergoing IVF as well as improving overall health.

Although vitamin D is known to play a key role in fetal bone growth, its exact role during fertilization and implantation is not really known. There is a need for scientists to now determine the appropriate doses of vitamin D that may help women during the preconception period and during pregnancy.

If you aren't taking supplements, it might be a good idea since it is found naturally in many foods that are not often eaten. These foods include cod liver oil, fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, herring; Vitamin D fortified milk and cereal, eggs.

Vitamin D is also added to milk and is manufactured in the skin as a result of direct exposure to sunlight.

IVF and Your Sex Life

8 Reasons Why IVF Impacts Your Sex Life

It's a pretty delicate topic I know but IVF is not conducive a good sex life. For a start, when you are doing a full stimulated cycle, the following passion killers are likely to, and do, happen:

1. You may bleed for several days after you expect your period to end because you have been taking a contraceptive pill since the start of your period
2. You experience intermittent spotting during your cycle whilst you are taking hormonal treatment
3. Quite likely you may bleed after egg collection and will be feeling quite sore and bloated for a couple of days
4. Your breasts may become sensitive to touch so any foreplay is just out of the question
5. Because you are inserting Crinone Gel to line your uterus, you worry that a pile of it will end up on your sheets (it does!)
6. You decide to avoid intercourse for the for 24 hours after transfer (just in case the embryo falls out)
7. Both of you will continue to avoid intercourse cause you are both scared your partners penis might dislodge the embryo (As if! But as IVF is so darn expensive you both don't want to repeat the process)
8. You then get your period

I think this just about covers the two months when you are cycling. Of course, you do have breaks in between when things get back to normal - whatever that is. But after several cycles of doing this, combined with all that previous experience of trying to conceive, you sex life just diminishes. You know you need it to bring sexy back but it all becomes too hard during this time. Its pretty ironic that this is the case, given that the old testicles need to be used to produce good quality sperm. See my blog on sperm titled Keeping the River Flowing).

The good thing about not doing IVF: Bringing sexy back.

Officially Not A Paedophile

Police Record Check for Would Be Parents

It's official - my husband and I have passed our police record check and we can now start IVF.

The words on the National Police Certificate dated 4th September read "At the data of issue there are no disclosable court outcomes recorded." There are five interesting features about this report:

1. The report arrived within a week of being submitted - not the 10 week delay that I reported in a previous blog.

2. That the word "disclosable" is not even a word since it keeps coming up as an error in my spell checker.

3. That I paid $64 for two certificates that state "At the date of issue there are no disclosable court outcomes recorded." How insulting is that. The report offers the possibility that maybe in the future, I could be in court.

4. This report really it is only relevant for the past, not the future. I could go out tomorrow, commit a terrible crime and quite possibly continue undertaking IVF. No one would be any the wiser.

5. Any other couple who conceive naturally are not subject to getting checked out. Apart from this being discriminatory, it also is a breach of a normal human right which is to bear children.

Diet Plan Working

Weight Loss and Improving Chances of Conception

One week of solid nutritious eating on a low calorie plan and exercising has seen me lose just over 1 kilo over the past week. How exciting! I am now officially overweight not obese. Funny how a one kilo weight loss can move you from being obese to overweight according the a BMI calculator. Psychologically, being overweight sounds better than obese!

In any case, I still have a long way to go. In fact, I am aiming to get my weight back into the healthy weight range to help improve my chances of conception. By my count that means losing about 12 kilos (2 stone). With a bit of luck I should be able to get close to that goal by the end of year. I can then kick start the new year with another round of IVF. I've tried everything else so might as well try the weight loss option which according to research is one of the most significant reasons why IVF fails.

Surprisingly, I have not felt overly hungry. Well - I did for the first couple of days but my body has now adjusted to the portion sizes I am now eating. I am having 5 small meals a day rather than 3 large ones and this seems to have stopped me from thinking about snacking on lollies and chocolate in between meals.

Police Record Check IVF Anger

Police record checks for IVF patients

In an earlier blog, I highlighted that prospective parents planning to do IVF must undergo police records before commencing treatment. I mentioned that I thought the laws were very biased. It seems I am not alone in my views.

What's worse is that now that the new laws have come into effect, according to my IVF nurse there is apparently a 10 week waiting period before the people who have requested Police Record Checks will get them. Seems that while the government has made these laws they have not accounted for extra people to process higher levels of demand.

Fortunately, because of this backlog myself and other women planning to undergo will still be able to do treatment despite not having a police record check. That is a huge relief as it would mean that I would not be able to start treatment until mid November.

There has been comprehensive news coverage about this. For more information, see the article in The Age on IVF.

Still in With a Chance

IVF Conception Still Possible

A visit to my IVF specialist revealed that he still thinks my husband and I will conceive. So despite being nearly 40 and despite my husbands sperm problems, he still thinks this is a realistic goal.

It's funny how a Doctor can be so confident when after 7 failures, you are not. So after asking all the probing questions, he still feels we will get pregnant. Apparently, he has done every test possible to me so from his perspective there is no reason why I should not fall pregnant. IVF apparently helps overcome male infertility issues so theoretically, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to become parents.

This makes things a little frustrating as it seems everything that should be working isn't. I guess it puts us in no mans land. The other annoying thing is that IVF is not cheap - not by a long shot so every failure means spending more money on another round. Whilst, you can't put a cost on what I perceive to be a joy in having a baby, it does place a financial strain on your budget.

So with this in mind we have decided to continue down this path and try again. Fortunately, we have one frozen embryo left from the cycle I did in January. So apart from giving my body a rest from the drugs it means we will use our last remaining embryo. So if this fails, another stimulated cycle is on the cards. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on having a good nutritional diet, no alcohol or coffee - basically following the suggestions in the Pregnancy Miracle ebook I purchased a few weeks ago.