uring any particular cycle the costs will include:
* Initial consultation (can be 6% to 10% of the basic IVF treatment cost).
* Basic IVF Treatment (varies by country as outlined in Table 1) Usually includes doctors fees for egg collection and embryo transfer, embryologist’s fees for intro fertilization, anesthetics, ultrasound scans, theater charges.
* Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (can be 28% to 40% of the basic IVF treatment cost) Creation of embryos by direct injection of sperm into egg, procedure used for male infertility but increasingly common in standard IVF.
* Hormonal drugs (can be 20% to 80% of the basic IVF treatment cost) Precise cost will depend on which drugs are prescribed for stimulating the ovaries. A Times Body & Soul survey also found high variation in prices charged by pharmacists.
* Embryo freezing Sometimes included in the basic IVF cost. Other clinics can charge up to 20% of the basic IVF treatment cost, plus around 10% of the basic IVF cost per year for storage and between 20% and 100% of the basic IVF treatment cost for later thawing and transfer.
* Other investigations Immunological therapies: can be up to 50% of the basic IVF treatment cost. Pre-implantation genetic screening, to pick the best embryos: can be 55% to 120% of the basic IVF treatment cost. Both procedures are offered by a few clinics, though there is little published evidence that they are effective.
* Regularity fee (dependent on the country) can be 4% to 5% of the basic IVF treatment cost. Charged separately by some clinics and rolled into the general cost by others.
This IVF cost information was according to The Times, January 10, 2008 – to give an indication of how these will affect the total IVF cost around the world the figures, which originally were for UK clinics, have been converted into percentages of the basic IVF treatment cost, and it has been assumed that the percentages will be similar across the globe. Please note that if you, for example, purchase your hormonal drugs in a different country to where you have your IVF treatment then the percentage will not be an accurate reflection of costs.
The major extra cost on top of the basic IVF treatment cost that everybody has to bear is the hormonal drugs. The amount of hormonal drugs that are required depend upon your: