First of all- read about this ungreatful woman.
Ok, now I need some advice.
I had my remaining 6 embryo’s frozen in May when I had my 2 baby girl’s transfered to their temporary home (my tummy).
I thank GD that I have the BEST medical insurance ever which paid for the entire IVF cycle. 100%. And I have two more cycles that I can use free of charge. I know, I thank my stars every day. So I am thankful that the only out-of-pocket that I needed to pay for was the storage/freezing.
Now the first time cost was $1000. This covered initial storage and 6 months of freezing. Now, every six months, I need to pay $500 to keep them frozen. For us, this is costly (esp right now). But I cant bring myself to “destroy them”. I mean, Yes I have two more cycyles that my insurance will pay for. But does that mean that I have to go through all of this again if I do choose to destroy them? I would have to go through the retrieval, drugs etc? And who knows if a frozen cycle will even work? And how long can I freeze them for? I mean, I don’t think that I want to get pregnant again (If I am lucky to get pregnant again) until the twins are at least 4 or 5 years old.
So much to think about. I am writing about this because in the first week of October I need to give them an answer if they should go ahead and charge me for the $500 or the scary alternative. Any advice? Do you think that I should pay for another 1/2 year until my girls are born (just in case something GD forbid happens) and then decide… I don’t know. I am quite torn.
I mean if I were having one child, I would probably want to get on that horse and have another one 2 years later- but with two… its a different ball game. Anyway, that’s that.
Oh, I have a funny story to tell you.
When I was in for my retrieval, my husband was depositing his swimmers into a cup. As he screwed the cap on the cup, he held it up and said to it “See you later girls”. He told me this the day of the retrieval- and it slipped my mind until the other week when we found out we were having girls. I looked over to him and said-”Well you did say girls”
Chas said
That is such a personal choice,I feel weird even giving advice. I’ll just tell you what I would personally do. If my storage fee was that great…and that is a really terribly expensive fee (my fee is $360 per year!), I would try to find somewhere else to store them. You can have them transferred somewhere else. I personally would never have them destroyed, but that’s only b/c I have a moral objection to it. Had my first FET worked, I would still have had another, despite the fact that J really only wants 2 kids, b/c I could never just “destroy” them. BUT, that’s just me, and you need to do what’s right for you.
BTW, where do I find your kind of insurance???? I am seriously asking that…let me know.
Stacie said
You would think that insurance companies would pay to freeze the embies because it is so much cheaper to use them than do a whole fresh cycle. Interesting that they don’t. Here, I had to payy for all of mine out of pocket so I was keeping my ice baby for as long as possible.
This is such a hard and very personal decision. Tough. Sorry I can’t be more helpful. One thing to consider is that these are your young 26 year old embies you have on ice. In five years, your embies will be 31. Will it matter? I hope it won’t, but that fear is ingrained in me. It does seem like your freezing price is expensive, though!
Furrow said
That is an extremely tough choice. I think I would hold onto them at least until the girls are born, although I’m sure nothing bad will happen if you don’t. I think I might just be superstitious that way.
Since I didn’t go through IVF, I can’t say how I would feel about saving, donating, or destroying embryos. I have a sense that you have to be there, in that position, to truly know.
Kirsten said
I have to break this down a bit!
1. I absolutely CANNOT believe the nerve of that person who is suing over having twins. It takes all kinds in this crazy world of ours but that is just unbelievable. Karma is a bitch, especially in her case, I hope.
2. Holy crap you have great insurance.
3.It’s funny you wrote this post because I have been awaiting my “storage” statement; it should be here any day and I have NO idea what they will charge me. I did get a bill for our cryopreserved sperm ($150) which I totally forgot we even had. I will be calling them to tell them to destroy that since we’ve got our 5 embryos. I’m planning to continue to store our embryos for another couple of years because I highly doubt we would wait longer than that to have another baby…if we have another baby (I am a-okay with the 2 we’ve got!). I’m really surprised they charge so much but I could be surprised when I get my bill, too. However, for me, that fee would be soooo much less than what I’d have to pay to start over again since my insurance doesn’t cover crap. I guess I’d agree with Furrow and at least keep them until you have the girls and see what your thoughts are on having more children. Of course, I know those thoughts can always change though…geez, I am not helping much. Let me know what you decide!!
topcat said
I agree with Chas – about trying to get them transferred somewhere cheaper. It’s a hard decision, isn’t it! I have eight tiny embies on ice – so weird, that a piece of me and my hubby are sitting in a freezer somewhere. Might sound a bit harsh – but they are my “insurance policy” at the moment, if something were to go wrong. I like to think I would keep them frozen for another few years … I know that Mr TC is DONE after this. I have wondered about donating them to research for stem cells … don’t know about embryo adoption, but I’ve thought about it. So many choices!
nailgirl said
Oh gosh I say pay to keep them frozen. I also was wondering why you dont have a blog roll?
The Dunn Family said
I noticed you in NY, and I’m in NJ and that was about the same price we were quoted if we had had any embies to freeze. Ours may have even been a tad bit more a year.
I wish I could give you advice. We didn’t have any to freeze. I can’t imagine being in your situation as I’ve thought about it more than once what WOULD I have done if we had any frozen. We only wanted two, maybe three if the first two were the same sex. But since our twins were B/G we pretty much decide we are done.
I think if I had to make the choice, I would have donated my embies to research. I have a hard time with embryo donation FOR ME. Again, this is just my take. I just would have a hard time with me and DH’s biological child being out there. And I feel like if I was just going to destroy it, I might as well donate it to research so that maybe advances in fertility treatment could be made.
All that being said, its such a hard and personal decision. I would research finding a cheaper place to store them for now. I think you should give yourselves more time to make this decision. Because who knows how you will feel a few years from now. Good luck.