(Entry written prior to posted date).

 

One of the biggest stressors for doing IVF is the high cost. Most of us who scrape together enough money to do it need to get it from different sources. I was lucky enough to win a grant to pay for a big chunk of of the cost. I was also very thankful that my Mom could help me with the upfront costs and medicine that I am slowly paying her back with. I also have some on my credit cards only due to last minute unexpected costs. Those unexpected costs were due to me needing more medication due to my eggs not responding very well. IVF Medicine is incredibly expensive, especially when your eggs don’t cooperate and barely grow.

 

I feel like I am in a constant battle. I get angry sometimes, as anyone would when they shell out this much money with no guarantee of a baby. But still we try. We continue to see if “just this next time” it will work. I knew someone whose adoptive mother had 15 miscarriages before she finally gave birth to her one and only child. She went through those miscarriages during the 1950s and 1960s, when the topic was very taboo and treatment was not advanced like it is today. Imagine having that many miscarriages with no explanation because they didn’t have the technology to determine the cause for all her losses. This woman told me she believed her adoptive mother was the most resilient person she ever knew and she said, “there is something to be said for someone’s perseverance despite all the obstacles.” That word, perseverance, really stuck out in my mind, and it’s something I’ve been striving for ever since.

 

But in order to persevere with infertility treatment it all comes down to the fact that your perseverance will cost you. Some may say, “Just continue to try naturally and it will happen” they do not understand that this too has a cost. For those of us that have recurrent miscarriages (like I do), there is definitely a cost to this. Sometimes surgery is needed afterward to clear the uterus. If the uterus isn’t cleared completely there is a chance that this will cause even worse infertility issues due to embryos not being able to properly implant due to remaining scar tissue. This remaining scar tissue can cause embryos that do implant over it to not get sufficient nutrients, which can lead to further miscarriages. Resolving this issue includes costs for things such as ultrasounds, sonohystogram, hysteroscopy, and repeated hysteroscopy if the first one did not clear everything. All of those ‘what if’ scenarios I just described actually happened to me, and it ended up costing me more than a round of IVF. So hopefully you can see why I chose to pursue IVF. It increases the odds of success and helps you to avoid costly surgeries after miscarriages. If you have recurrent miscarriages IVF might be the best treatment option for you. Ask your doctor about treatment options and expect further testing to be done in order to narrow down the best treatment for you. I needed more testing to learn that for sure two of my losses were due to chromosomal abnormalities. Because of this testing and the results we decided the best option for success was IVF.

 

 

Despite the reality of the costs, you still need to live a little. Today Mom and I went to the Pacific Place Mall. I’ve become a master at window shopping, instead of actual shopping. Most of the time I am content with window shopping. I ended up spending right around $60, which is the highest amount I’ve spent on clothes in a while. I’ve gotten into the habit of avoiding clothes shopping for a long time. Much of my clothes I wear at home and occasionally out and about have holes in them. But If you look past my well-used clothes due to a tight budget you will see someone who is doing anything and everything to persevere.

 

 

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