I found this article online. It really stirred up a lot of thoughts and questions in my mind:
WASHINGTON - More than half a million babies are born prematurely each year, and specialists are urging that doctors take new steps to battle one cause: infertility treatments that spur twins, triplets and other multiple births.
Among the institute’s recommendations: Specialists should strengthen guidelines that reduce the number of multiple births as a result of infertility treatments. Sixty-two percent of twins conceived through such care were born prematurely, as were 97 percent of other multiples.To improve the odds of getting pregnant, doctors often implant several embryos at once into a woman’s womb, a technique that sometimes works too well. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine issued guidelines in 1999, and tightened them in 2004, urging doctors to implant fewer embryos, sometimes only one at a time — and triplet-and-higher births have dropped significantly.
The group said it will consider tightening those guidelines further. But European countries that implant just one embryo at a time also pay for women to undergo multiple IVF attempts, while very few American women have insurance coverage for a procedure that can cost more than $15,000 per try, noted Dr. William Gibbons, president of the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology.
“If we want to buy into this, society needs to buy into it,” said Gibbons — who added that parts of Europe also found they saved money on treating preemies even after paying for repeated single-embryo IVF attempts.
I really don't know how I feel about this. Is infertility a right or a privilege? Should insurance cover infertility treatments? Is it fair that women who can't afford to have infertility treatments can't have children? Can they limit how many embryos when we have to pay for each attempt?
Any thoughts? Currently I am leaning toward the fact that insurance doesn't have to cover anything they don't want to especially something that isn't health-related. I am blessed that Mayo chooses to pay 50%. I wonder what non-infertility patients think? Don't worry. You can't hurt my feelings on this. I'm interested to know what others think.
5 comments:
First of all, I linked to your site via HP.
My dh and I are currently in our third year of IF. Oh, how I wish our insurance covered IF stuff such as IUI, IVF, and ICSI, but they don't. I have heard some people say stuff such as "If you can't get pregnant through normal means (i.e. sex), and you can't afford the treatments to help you get pregnant, then probably can't afford a child in the first place."
Well, let me tell you that my dh and I, while we may not be able to afford the thousands of dollars for treatment to get pregnant, we definately could afford a child (or children).
When it comes to treating the CAUSE of the infertility (such as varicocele surgery or medication to treat hormone imbalances), I think the insurance company should treat it like any other illness and pay for the medication or surgery.
As for choosing how many embryos to harvest/implant, here are my thoughts:
If you are going to harvest eggs, they should make regulations that you MUST fertilize and attempt to carry EVERY egg you harvest (i.e if you only want two children, then you had better not harvest ten eggs). I also think that, if you harvest ten eggs and have five embryos implanted in you, and all five take, then you must carry all five of them to term-no aborting any of them (also known as selective reduction). You, as the parents, chose to get pregnant through IVF and you knew the risks of multiple pregnancies, so deal with the consequences.
lizn
Lizn, very good points. I agree completely with all of them. That's why we only fertilized 14 the first time and are not transferring more than 2 at a time no matter what ... I love HP!
Would it hurt your feelings if I called you AMAZON woman? I'm allowed to, since I've been called the same, but I am only 5'9". One time a "friend" in college said to me, "Amy, you're a tan, huge MONSTER." Nice. Thanks.
So, I think you can be responsible with IVF, and you can be reckless. I think the guidelines of transfering 3 over age 35 and 2 under 35 is pretty safe. I do think you should be ready to take what you get, though. I suppose 3 implanted could split into ID twins and you could have 6, but the chances of that happening are next to impossible.
If the government was going to dictate that you could only implant 1 each time, then there has got to be some financial safety net so that you don't spend $60,000 on 4 tries.
I'm IF, though (duh), so I think my opinion will be similar to most IFers.
I don't really know where I stand with IVF being covered/ not covered by insurance. What I would like to see is a complete overhaul of the health care system in this country. I am extremely unhappy with health care here and insurance companies. I could go on and on about personal examples of why things should change, as I'm sure you could too, what with you guys probably paying thousands of dollars trying to get pregnant. I'm sure that if I was in your shoes, I'd want it to be covered since there's no way (no way because we don't have it) my husband and I could spend that kind of money trying to get pregnant. However, I also feel that I never would have tried IVF if I hadn't been able to get pregnant because having kids actually wasn't a top priority for us. So... I guess I don't know... but that's what I think for now.
Amy, yes you are right that Amazon woman wouldn't be my favorite thing to be called. Did you read my post from the other day about the guy saying "6'7" halfway to heaven?" Geezie peezie.
I agree. They can't tell us how many embryos if they don't pay for it.
However, if they have to pay for infertility, what else would they have to pay for -- plastic surgery etc.?
Also Susie, I would have NEVER thought I would do IVF either and always thought I'd be fine either way but something changed in me bigtime after 5 years of marriage.
I also know there are a lot of people who, like you, couldn't afford this. We are blessed to be where we are.
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