IVF Cost Breakdown | IVF Cost US | IVF Cost India | The cost of IVF explained in plain english. http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/ en-us pregnancy,birth,family,health,medicine neville@nevillepettersson.com 2011 IVF Cost Saver IVF Cost This article is going to breakdown the IVF cost for you so you can more fully understand why it costs so much. I'll also talk about the cost of IVF here in the states and also in India where more and more people are going because it's cheaper. Remember that if you're trying to get pregnant you should really only consider IVF as a last resort, once you have tried everything else that you possibly can, because the extreme costs coupled with the poor ivf success rates make the treatment one of the worst performers in the pregnancy arena. IVF Cost Breakdown The IVF cost is so high because of two main reasons. Firstly, the cost of the fertility drugs is very high and secondly the cost of the specialists is extremely high. The follicle stimulating hormone injections which you need to take daily for up to 2 weeks will cost you around a hundred bucks a pop, sometimes more. The trigger shot you take on the last day will also cost you a few hundy, giving you a total of about two grand just on the fertility drugs. The numerous meetings and procedures involving the fertility doctors all contribute to the high cost of IVF. You'll also incur some fees for the anaesthesiologist, which have one of the highest rates in the medical world. The nurses, support staff and facilities also need to be paid for, so the IVF cost incorporates all of these costs. One of the good things about IVF is that the cost is normally a fixed price. The IVF clinics know exactly how much time and resources they'll need for the job so that's why they can offer the reassurance of a fixed price. The whole treatment is still very expensive but at lest you won't get any nasty surprises at the end. IVF Cost US The cost of IVF in the states can reach into the ten of thousands, more if you don't conceive on your first cycle. The best clinics have waiting lists and charge premium rates for absolutely everything. Fortunately for you there are lots of other, less popular but much more effective, infertility treatments stateside which can show you how to get pregnant much more quickly and cheaply. Check out some of the top programs on our sidebar ranking chart. IVF Cost India The cost if IVF is up to 70% cheaper in India for two main reasons. The first one is that the cost of the fertility drugs is considerably cheaper and secondly because the cost of labour is cheaper. The doctors and specialists still get well paid, however the support staff and clinic staff get paid less because the cost of living is less in India and there's no such thing as minimum wage in Asia. IVF Cost Considerations The only reason that IVF is so popular is because it is well known and is practiced by nearly all leading medical institutions throughout the world. However, don't be fooled into thinking that just because it's famous, that it's the best treatment. Most specialists will tell you, and the information is also freely available, that IVF success rates are around 50% at best. This is NOT a good success rate considering the cost of IVF. Just to make myself clear here, the Top 5 infertility treatments by success rate (listed on this site), have success rates over 88% and most of them cost under $50. http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/ 27 Jun 2011 02:18:30 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com IVF Process Calendar In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is the process of creating a (test tube) baby outside of the womb in the lab and then implanting this embryo back into the mother. It takes away the usual chance of conception by pre-fertilizing the egg, however IVF success rates are still very low because more often than not the embryos don't stick or stay inside the womb. In this article I'll explain very simply the whole IVF process from start to finish in plain english. IVF Process Timeline The whole IVF process takes place within one menstrual cycle. For most women this is around 28 days, although some women may have longer or irregular periods. This needs to be something that you need to know beforehand so monitor this over the months preceding the IVF treatment. The first step involves getting a fertility assessment for both you and your hubby. This includes looking at the condition of your fallopian tubes and making sure they're in god working order. The gold standard for assessment of tubal condition is by laparoscopy (keyhole examination). Back up or alternative techniques include x-ray and ultrasound. Men also need to get tested. A sperm sample is analyzed for mobility and virility. This is to determine whether there is a need for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), whereby the sperm is actually injected into the egg directly. Less mobile or virile sperm will need a hand to fertilize the egg, thereby requiring ICSI. IVF Process Start To Finish Once the initial testing is done, usually just a formality, the first step in the IVF process is to meet with the nurse who will give you follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) drugs. These drugs usually need to injected directly into the gut every morning for around 2 weeks leading up to ovulation. This all takes place right at the start of your menstrual cycle, just after a period. The purpose of FSH is to stimulate the release of more than, the regular, one egg. The effect of the FSH on egg growth will be monitored constantly during this time with scheduled ultrasound examinations. IVF Process Calendar The next step in the IVF process is the egg retrieval. This is a short operation which is usually conducted in theater involving the specialist surgeon and a anaesthesiologist. It basically involves inserting a needle into your vaginal wall and sucking out the eggs. The aim of this part of the IVF process is to hopefully harvest as many healthy eggs as possible. If the FSH has worked as it should have then you should have at least ten eggs to work with. IVF Process Day By Day The final two steps in the IVF process is firstly to combine the egg and sperm in the lab to make your test tube baby, or more specifically Petri dish baby. The fertilized eggs are observed carefully to determine health and virility. The best looking embryos will be chosen for implantation into your uterus. This process is very straight forward not involving surgery or and medical staff. Once this is done it's simply a matter of waiting and monitoring to see whether the embryo holds. One fact that most people don't know about the whole IVF process is that IVF success rates statistics are only taken from the implantation stage of the treatment. A lot of couples don't even make it to this stage, which requires another round of FSH injections. The reported IVF success rates would be much lower if these people were included. http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/ivf-process.html 27 Jun 2011 15:45:29 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com Why Can't I Get Pregnant? If you are trying to get pregnant and have not yet had success, then you will be riding an emotional roller coaster. However, you are not alone. Statistics show that over 40% of couples trying to conceive undergo some form of fertility treatment. As a fertility consultant, every day people ask me the question "Why can't I get pregnant?". In most cases my answer is simple - you CAN get pregnant! You can get pregnant without spending upwards of $15000 on fertility treatments and in most cases without drugs. First, let me start with your diet. Often the people asking me "Why can't I get pregnant?" are already taking a folic acid supplement. This is a great start. Folic acid prevents spina bifida and assists in the development of your babies nervous system, but it does not aide in getting you pregnant. It is important to tidy up your diet when trying to conceive, as bad diet and excessive weight will lower your chances of getting pregnant fast. Eat fresh food, low in saturated fats and chemicals. You want your body to be in as good shape as possible. I advise my clients to eat a diet high in protein from nuts and fish. With so many additional minerals found in these, your body will flourish and so will your reproductive organs! There are e-books packed with information on the importance of diet when pregnant and trying to conceive, take the link below for one I recommend. My next tip is that if you smoke or drink, you seriously need to stop while trying to get pregnant. Statistics show that people who smoke or drink alcohol can take up to ten months longer to get pregnant than those who don't. Smoking will impair ovulation and fallopian tube function. If you are asking "Why cant I get pregnant?", but you are still smoking, then give up now. Drinking alcohol has numerous negative effects on the bodies of both women and men who are trying to conceive. The most important factor relevant to you getting pregnant, is that alcohol affects the body's PH levels, leaving your body in an acidic state. The human body and reproductive systems function better in an alkaline state, so if you are seriously trying to get pregnant, then you should avoid cigarettes and alcohol. You will need to give them both up when you get pregnant anyway. Why Can't I Get Pregnant Again? My next point is important for women who have not had a baby before, and also for those asking the question "Why can't I get pregnant again?". If your partner smokes or drinks, then his sperm will be affected, both in numbers and in sluggishness or speed. In so many cases it is not the lifestyle of the woman which is the problem, it is the lifestyle of her man! If you have been trying to conceive for more than six months, have a sperm analysis done. It costs less than $500 and it solves many emotional problems and stress on women. It is not always the woman's body which is the problem yet women automatically blame themselves. PCOS One of the reasons that you may be having trouble conceiving could be the condition of PCOS which affects 10-15% of women who are reproductive age. It is condition of cysts accumulating on the ovaries and affecting hormone production. Signs that you may have this disorder are: severe acne, excessive facial and body hair, obesity and irregular periods. There are treatments available using drugs which stimulate ovulation and a lot of people with PCOS pay for IVF. I have seen much success in people with PCOS getting pregnant using less expensive and more natural methods. The e-book link below has excellent strategies. Why Cant I Get Pregnant At 20? I have cases of young women coming to my clinic and asking "Why Can't I get pregnant at 20?" or even "Why can't I get pregnant at 18?". If you are young and trying to get pregnant, then gain as much knowledge about getting pregnant as you can before you panic. The first step is to track your time of ovulation. You can purchase kits which tell you the exact day you ovulate for under $50. Most women ovulate on day 12 - 17 (day one is the first day of your period), but using a kit will give an accurate date. When you are ovulating, have intercourse only once on that day, and once on the three days after. Clean up your lifestyle. As a young person you are at risk of heavy drinking and smoking and living on an unhealthy diet. This will affect your ability to conceive. If after six months of tracking your ovulation you are not pregnant, then seek further assistance. If you are serious about getting pregnant then take a look at the list of e-books I recommend. Most of them come with forums for invaluable support and knowledge and they are cheap. The books on my list are not just new on the market, they have had years of success in helping to create life. Check them out and good luck! http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/why-cant-i-get-pregnant.html 07 Sep 2011 07:23:36 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com Test Tube Baby Wiki Test tube baby is a baby who has been created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) process. It is a method of artificial impregnation where the tissues are merged outside living organisms. Normally this technique is chosen as the last option of assisted reproductive technology since it's a complex and expensive process. Firstly, the ovulatory process of the female egg donor is hormonally controlled. Then the egg is extracted and the hard shell of the egg cell is removed so the egg could be fertilized by donor sperm. When both egg and sperm cells have merged, they form a zygote. Zygote is then placed in a test tube in a fluid medium to let it grow for a while. When the cell cluster has reached a certain maturity state it is transferred to the uterus of the surrogate mother. If zygote successfully bonds to the uterus wall, the fertilization process is complete and pregnancy starts. First Test Tube Baby The first pregnancy achieved through in vitro human fertilization was reported in 1973, but it lasted only few days and ended up in a miscarriage. The gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and the physiologist Robert Edwards had been working hard on finding an different, better infertility treatment since 1966. By 1977 they had done about 80 in vitro fertilization procedures which lasted only few short weeks. They had discovered how to successfully fertilize an egg outside a woman's body but there were still some troubles after putting the egg back into a woman's uterus. Things became different when their patient in the Oldham General Hospital (Great Britain) Lesley Brown whose fallopian tubes were blocked successfully passed the first few weeks of pregnancy. The pregnancy resulted with the worlds first successful test tube baby Louise Joy Brown who was born on July 25, 1978. Louise Joy Brown is now happily married and she has a son who was conceived in the natural way. How Test Tube Babies Changed The World Throughout the history people have invented various methods on how to treat infertility. Ancient cultures connected infertility with gods, who were also called upon to help out in the form of rituals and offerings. Yet most of couples remained childless. In the 1960ies fertility FDA-approved medication appeared on the scene and it changed things quite a lot. They were designed to stimulate ovary to produce eggs. These pills and injections helped thousands of women whose reproductive systems were in a need of a boost. But they were powerless when it came to women with blocked fallopian tubes. Test tube babies was the solution the world was seeking for. In vitro fertilization allows both women with blocked fallopian tubes and also post-menopausal women have an option to conceive if they wish. However, the success rate of the procedure is around 35% and each in vitro fertilization attempt in USA costs at least 10,000$ , average price being 30,000$ - 40,000$. Are Test Tube Babies Healthy? This a very important question when considering artificial conception methods. Does being outside the womb, even for just a couple of days, can harm the egg? And if the baby isn't normal, is it because of in vitro fertilization or is there another cause? One reason to worry is that many test tube babies are more likely to have low birth weight. All babies with low weight no matter if they are test tube babies or naturally born babies often have health problems which may influence them on the long term. Other thing is that there is a possibility that test tube babies could be genetically different than those who were born naturally. There is no way to tell why is it so and whether these gene expression differences can cause health problems or not. Most of test tube babies have no significant health problems. But one has to bear in mind that the oldest test tube baby, Louis Brown at the moment is only a bit over 30 years old and most of them are still under 20 so one can't observe long-term health problems yet. http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/test-tube-baby.html 22 Oct 2011 03:10:32 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com Help Me Get Pregnant Fast After spending years taking all the right precautions to make sure you don't get pregnant, the time has come; you want to have a baby! Seems like it should happen right away, and some people do get pregnant almost as soon as they make the decision that the time is right. If you want to be one of the lucky ones who gets pregnant right away, here are some tips for getting pregnant quickly and healthily. Help Me Get Pregnant Fast The best way to get pregnant fast is to understand the mechanism of how getting pregnant works, and then take advantage of that knowledge. Every month a woman's ovaries receive a message from her pituitary system to release an egg. The egg's release is called ovulation, and once this happens, the egg travels down the fallopian tubes. This is where fertilization occurs; if the environment and circumstances are right, the sperm penetrates the egg and pregnancy ensues. If you're trying to get pregnant, knowing when this process happens is essential. Help Me Get Pregnant Quickly Knowing when you are ovulating is essential to maximizing your ability to get pregnant as quickly as you can. Ovulation generally happens right in the middle of your menstrual cycle, so you should know how often you get your period. If you menstruate every 28 days, you probably ovulate around day 14; if your cycle is longer, your ovulation day will be farther into your cycle. If your cycle is somewhat irregular then it makes sense to pay attention to other signs that your body provides. Many women feel a slight cramping when they ovulate. They also notice a thinning and clearing of their cervical mucus; this is one of the ways your body helps you get pregnant - the thinner mucus helps the sperm get to the egg. If you need more help determining when you are ovulating, you can purchase an ovulation predictor kit. This is an at-home test that uses your urine to let you know when you are most fertile. The other way to tell when you are ovulating is to take your basal temperature using a basal thermometer. This measures your body's resting temperature, which rises slightly when you are ovulating. Taking your temperature with this special thermometer each morning before you get out of bed and graphing the results will tell you everything you need to know about your cycle; and if you keep track every day of the month, it can even let you know when you're pregnant! Help Me Get Pregnant Naturally In addition to understanding your cycle, it is important that you are as healthy as possible when you are trying to get pregnant. Maintain a nutritious diet, exercise regularly but not more than seven hours per week, don't smoke and don't drink. If you're on any medications, check to make sure that they don't interfere with fertility; this information is generally available or online, or you can make a quick call to your physician. Finally, make sure you're having sex regularly. Two or three times per week is a good rule to follow, and increase your frequency to every day on the week that you're going to ovulate: the few days before, the day of, and the few days after. A healthy couple under the age of 35 should be conceive within a year; if you do not within that amount of time, you may want to check to see if there are medical factors that you are unaware of. http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/help-me-get-pregnant.html 03 Dec 2011 08:50:40 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com Fertilization For couples trying to get pregnant, fertilization is the goal; it is true that it is one of the most important steps in the process of having a baby, but it is not the only one. When fertilization occurs naturally, the sperm successfully makes its way up through the vagina following copulation, swims through the uterus and up into the fallopian tube, where it encounters the freshly-released egg and penetrates it. Once the sperm has merged with the egg, the sperm's tail falls off and the merged unit travels down to the uterus for the next important step in the process, which is called implantation. If this occurs, you are well on your way to having a baby. When a couple is having trouble getting pregnant on their own, an infertility specialist can help them by removing the egg from the woman's ovaries and marrying it with the sperm in the lab; once this process, called in vitro fertilization, is completed, the fertilized egg is them placed back into the woman so that implantation can take place and pregnancy occurs. Fertilization Timeline When a couple is trying to get pregnant, the most important thing that they can do to enhance their chances of fertilization taking place is to make sure that the sperm and the egg are both in the same place at the same time. Because the egg is only available in the fallopian tube after ovulation for a couple of days, many couples go to great efforts to be aware of when a woman is most likely to be fertile; they may track her menstrual cycle by simply using a calendar, they can take her daily basal temperature in order to track minute changes that signal fertility, or they can use a fertility predictor that will pinpoint exactly when the egg is most likely to be in the prime spot for fertilization to occur. Having intercourse every other day for several days before and after ovulation ensures that there are plenty of sperm at the ready to maximize your chances. Fertilization and Implantation Once the egg has been fertilized, whether in the fallopian tubes or in the laboratory during the process of in vitro fertilization, the next step of the process is implantation. Implantation is when the embryo attaches itself to the walls of the uterus, where it will receive nourishment during the course of the pregnancy. Following implantation the baby begins to grow rapidly for the next nine months. In order for implantation to take place, the uterine lining needs to be healthy and there needs to be a proper amount of the hormone progesterone to maintain its presence there. Often when a woman has had infertility problems and has gone through in vitro fertilization, her physician will give her shots of progesterone in order to ensure that the fertilized egg has the best chances of implanting. Fertilization Symptoms Although women who are anxious to get pregnant may think that they detect when fertilization takes place, the truth is that this is just a result of the mind playing tricks on you when you are trying to get pregnant. Fertilization takes place at a microscopic level, and would be nearly impossible to detect. That being said, some women do think that they can detect when implantation occurs, because they think that they can feel a cramping sensation. Whether this is true or not is difficult to determine. It is known that there can sometimes be a small amount of spotting following implantation. Fertilization generally happens within a day or two after ovulation, and implantation another several days after that.http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/fertilization.html http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/fertilization.html 30 Apr 2012 00:35:03 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com First Response Ovulation Test One of the most accurate and popular ways of increasing your chances of getting pregnant is by tracking your ovulation. This is because the only way to get pregnant is to have the sperm arrive at the same time as the egg in the fallopian tubes so that fertilization can take place. Although most women can guess when they ovulate based upon the number of days in her cycle and calculating what the average middle is, ovulation is not as clear cut as that. Being able to determine exactly when the egg is released is one of the absolutely best tools for couples who are trying to get pregnant. First Response Ovulation Test Strips Ovulation Test Kits make it very convenient for couples who are trying to get pregnant to pinpoint exactly when the best time is for them to try to conceive, because they let them know exactly when the woman is at her most fertile. The First Response Ovulation Tests come in three different formats - one is the standard Ovulation Kit, which provides a week's worth of test strips to be used in the middle of your cycle. The First Response Daily Ovulation Test is designed for women whose periods are less regular, and provides twenty days worth of strips - that way you can start checking to see if you are fertile as soon as your menstruation is over, this will prevent you from missing your opportunity if your most fertile time is not in the middle of the month. Finally, First Response also has their newest product, the Unmistakeable Yes/No Digital Ovulation Kit, which tracks a woman's LH levels during the course of the month rather than searching for a level that is based upon a national average. This is the most advanced test that First Response offers. All three kits involve testing urine for the levels of LH (luteinizing hormone), which is the chemical that will appear in a surge when your body is about to ovulate. First Response Ovulation Test Sensitivity The beauty of using the First Response Ovulation Test Kit is that it is set to have a sensitivity level that exactly detects when the LH levels in your body surge to the optimal level. LH is also known as luteinizing hormone - it is the chemical that your body releases that sends a message to your ovaries to release the mature egg. When the Luteinizing Hormone is present at its highest levels, you are approaching your optimal time for conception, and you should start trying to get pregnant within twenty four to thirty six hours of the test providing you with a positive response. The First Response Ovulation Test Kit is ninety five percent accurate for the detection of luteinizing hormone, and provides you with the exact information you need to maximize your success. First Response Ovulation Test Reviews Despite the accuracy of the information provided by the First Response Ovulation Test, some of the people who have used it when they were trying to get pregnant have been less than satified. Many women have reported that the test results are difficult to understand, and they also complain that once a package is open it must be used within thirty days or the results will no longer be accurate. That being said, there are also many women who found the tests very convenient, especially because they are available for purchase at local drug stores, convenience stores and general merchandise stores like Walmart and Target, and also for the ability to test in the privacy of their own homes rather than pursuing expensive fertility testing at a physician's office. For women who are simply looking to give themselves a bit of an advantage and the ability to know exactly when they are ovulating, this test has provided all that they need.http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/first-response-ovulation-test.html http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/first-response-ovulation-test.html 30 Apr 2012 03:07:05 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com SafeFetus For expectant mothers and fathers, the worrying and sleepless nights begins from the moment you learn that you're pregnant; after all, now you're responsible for somebody else's life. Whether you're concerned about making sure that the foods that you're taking in are providing the proper nutrition to ensure that you're giving your baby the best possible start in life or worried about whether it's safe for your baby if you continue taking a specific medication, you want all of the information available to you from a trustworthy source. The website safefetus.com was recently developed specifically to help you iwith your need for this information. With its comprehensive medication directory, prenatal and postnatal nutritional guide and a special page dedicated to the safety of the maternal environment, it is a valuable resource that addresses many pertinent concerns. SafeFetus Nutrition Whether you're trying to determine exactly what the pregnancy super foods are and what they do for you and your baby, or just trying to eat without the relentless nausea that follows you around all day, the safefetus website has complete information for you. From the best foods to combat morning sickness to the foods that will give you the most energy and vigor, to what foods to stay away from for the health of your baby, the website provides lists of dos and donts and the reasons why that will become your go to source for pregnancy nutrition. And even after the baby is born, the website's section on baby nutrition will also be there to help you with how to make sure you're eating the right foods for breastfeeding, and even pediatric nutritional information that is specifically geared to helping your baby grow big and strong. SafeFetus Drug Search One of the most valuable sections of the SafeFetus website is the tab labeled drug search. Ingesting unsafe chemicals of any kind is on the top of every expectant mother's list of what not to do when you're pregnant, but that doesn't change the fact that there are occasions when it is necessary for a woman who is pregnant to take medication. If you just have a cold or a headache or sore throat, or something that just requires an over the counter medication, you don't want to bother your obstetrician to check to see if a medication is safe, but you still need to know - the same is true for any medications, ointments or treatments that you may be taking for chronic conditions. The SafeFetus Drug Search enables you to input the name of any medication and get immediate feedback about whether the drug that you searched in its database is safe for you to take during your pregnancy. Searches are performed by the medication's trade name, and the results not only show whether it is safe to take during pregnancy, but also the drug's generic name, other trade names that it goes by, its risk category,what it's used for, and whether it's okay to take during breastfeeding. SafeFetus Medical Professionals Whether you are using the Safe Fetus program to check the nutritional value of your pregnancy diet, to check on environmental toxins you may be exposed to or to look up a specific medication, it is nice for expectant parents to know that the information on the site, though not to be used in place of your own physician's advice, is set up by a team of pharmacists and physicians whose mission it is to protect the health of your baby. All of the information on their site is a result of culling research studies from all over the world. http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/safefetus.html http://www.ivfcostsaver.org/safefetus.html 30 Apr 2012 04:16:50 GMT pregnancy,birth,children,family neville@nevillepettersson.com