Information about some IUI/IVF costs in Ontario, Canada and a personal update

I haven't been active on Reddit for many weeks now but I'm back! The last update I made got a lot of love and I want to thank everyone for all the DMs on Reddit and Discord - the outpouring of love has been so kind and so appreciated.

Normally I wouldn't make a standalone for this but it got super long so I switched it from a comment in the daily thread to its own standalone. This post has a personal update and a data dump. I've used headings if you want to skip my personal update and just look at the data dump instead.

Data Dump on Fees

Here are some figures that I can share for how much treatment in Ontario costs if you aren't eligible for or don't want to wait for a funded cycle, and for standard out of pocket tests and procedures. I don't have the costs for PGT - it's not that common here and we won't be doing it. Some anecdotal feedback: at my orientation class towards the end of 2019 of about 20 couples only one couple expressed interest in doing PGT and everyone else said they weren't interested. I'll find out what the price for PGT is an will update this post once I have it.

Note that some of these fees are dependent on the clinic (like administration fees), all prices are in Canadian dollars, and HST is 13%. In Canada things like some semen assessments, physicals, cycle blood work, and tests like an HSG or sonohysterogram are free thanks to universal healthcare.

IUI Cycles

• Annual administration fee: $251.21 +HST
• Sperm wash: $500
• Donor sperm wash: $500

Andrology Lab Fees

• Sperm function testing: $200
• Retrograde semen assessment with post ejaculate urine assessment: $250
• Post-vasectomy semen analysis: $75
• Convenience banking of sperm: $300
• Oncology banking of sperm: $150
• Annual sperm storage fee: $327.43 +HST
• Sperm transfer from another clinic: courier costs only
• Sperm transfer to another clinic: $250 +HST +courier fees

Fees for IVF Treatment

• Annual administration fee: $251.21 +HST
• IVF treatment cycle: $6,800
• Embryo thawing and transfer cycle: $1,700
• TESE/PESA: $600 + $1,200 for the urologist/surgeon

IVF Lab Services

• ICSI: $1,500
• ICSI with surgically retrieved sperm: $1,900
• Embryo freezing: $850
• Annual embryo storage: $327.43 +HST
• Embryo transfer to another clinic: $250 +HST +courier fees
• Embryo transfer from another clinic: courier fees only
• Assisted hatching: $400
• Blastocyst culture: $400

So a typical ICSI IVF cycle out of pocket costs this much:

• IVF treatment cycle: $6,800
• ICSI: $1,500
• Assisted hatching: $400
• Embryo freezing: $850
• Annual embryo storage: $327.43 +HST
• Annual administration fee: $251.21 +HST
• HST (where applicable): 75.36
• TOTAL: $10,204 Canadian (or $7,561.12 USD with today's exchange rate of $0.741)

If you don't have insurance for medication the out of pocket costs of medication per cycle is between $3,500 to $9,500 so a total out of pocket cycle for ICSI IVF with medication is between $13,704 to $19,704 Canadian (or $10,157.32 to $14,604.48 USD with today's exchange rate of $0.741).

Personal Update

Last update from me was that my long awaited for IVF was delayed due to COVID. After having waited to start IVF for over a year and my start date being delayed twice, thus extending my IVF wait by almost six months, I was fed up with everything and needed a break and that's why I stepped away.

Two weeks ago I got the email that my IVF cycle was scheduled. I start stims on my next CD1 which should be sometime early to mid the week of June 8. Finally! So that's my very happy update. The downside is that my husband cannot go to any of my appointments with me, instead of a fresh transfer we have to do a frozen transfer, and the wait time to do the transfer is two to six months.

All along we've been advised that a fresh transfer is preferable for us due to my husband's MFI so we're not exactly thrilled to be doing a frozen transfer but it is what it is.

The thing we most took issue with was the fact that my husband couldn't go in with me to my appointments. I understand that it's to limit the amount of people present, but we still don't like it. We've been there for each other for every appointment, for mine, his, and our joint appointments and procedures since day one. So much of this process has been heart breaking. We thought we'd have a baby as a result of sex and that hasn't and will never happen. Pretty much none of this process has been in our control and it's been devastating. Everything has had to unfortunately be so clinical, so being with each other through every step has been really important to us. This entire process has been stuff happening TO us and even though the doctors and nurses and staff have been amazing since we were taken in as patients the whole process has been very out of control - and we haven't even started IVF yet. It's just been one delay after another and so many hurdles to overcome. I don't want to do this without my husband by my side and he doesn't want to do it without being able to be there with me. If we can't have a "free sex baby" at least we wanted to be together for everything else.

We asked if we could wait until the restrictions pass and we were advised that it was up to us, but it could be at least six months before that happens and that there is a risk of us losing out on funding because the provincial budget has been getting hammered due to COVID and that they might revoke funding. We thought about it and decided that it would be more devastating to wait and potentially lose funding and be out of the running before even leaving the start line.

So we finally start IVF (ICSI) next week after being on the IVF waiting list since January 2019. I can't believe it's finally here.