Please give me your opinion. Choices I have for financing...

[NSTN]

Even though there is a military spin to this, it's about how to pay for IVF overall, so I put it here. Please move it if it would go somewhere else better.

DH and I have talked about this, but there is an upper limit to our abilities to fathom the standards of this experience. Yes, everyone's will be "unique" in some way, be it surprise mishaps or strange doctors or new protocols. However, we haven't gone through it even once yet. So, we're seeking opinions, with the understanding that they are just that and therefore, cannot really be offensive.

DH is in the military. I want to pursue a career in the medical field. We've discovered the enormous difficulty that we will have in having children of our own. At this moment, the three options for financing IVF are as follows:

A) Go to a MTF. Pay ~ $6K. Finance it somehow (but how?). Civi docs have in-house financing options usually. What, if any, financing options does a MTF give you?

B) Go to a civilian RE in-town. Pay ~ $12,900 after military discount. Get FET free. Finance through one of their options or through some other bank entity.

C) Go to a civilian RE in-town. Pay nothing due to returning to previous job that includes infertility in their insurance coverage (up to $30k, I think). Job has nothing to do with future career goals, and on a 1-10 scale of stress level, is around a 7. Great pay and benefits, but take abuse from customers and supervisors alike. Duration of return is 1 year or less, depending on the military.

My DH likes option C for the not-going-into-debt outcome. He second-guesses his choice, though, because the job can be/is very hard on a person. I want to go to a MTF b/c it's cheaper.

[cvpis4me]

NS, I would budget more around $8K for MTF IVF. That's because if you have any embies to freeze it will cost to freeze and store them. And it's about $2K for a FET if the IVF doesn't work. And you might want to think about how long you have to be at your job in order to get coverage for the infertility. If there is a waiting period it might not be worth it to you.

Also, there are about 12 states that mandate IVF insurance coverage. If you and DH plan on moving to a new duty station you might be able to get into one of those states. Then you can get any ol' job and it will have infertility coverage. My DH and I are considering moving to Hawaii for this very reason. That and there is a MTF in Hawaii that does IVF in case I don't get a job that covers it.

Hope this helps!

[NSTN]

Originally Posted by cvpis4me

NS, I would budget more around $8K for MTF IVF. That's because if you have any embies to freeze it will cost to freeze and store them. And it's about $2K for a FET if the IVF doesn't work. And you might want to think about how long you have to be at your job in order to get coverage for the infertility. If there is a waiting period it might not be worth it to you.

Also, there are about 12 states that mandate IVF insurance coverage. If you and DH plan on moving to a new duty station you might be able to get into one of those states. Then you can get any ol' job and it will have infertility coverage. My DH and I are considering moving to Hawaii for this very reason. That and there is a MTF in Hawaii that does IVF in case I don't get a job that covers it.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for replying, and making some very good points! When I worked at this place before, coverage began from either day 1 or day 30 (or it may have been day 1 of the first full month after hire...). The cryopreservation is definitely something we will have to do (as my DH seems to be barreling into total testicular failure). We have no idea what the timeframe is for retrieving any sperm he may have. Truly, it is a wonder that there were any in his ejaculate at all (he likely has KS), and our RE told us this is something that is just a "steady decline, not something you recover from later." So, we are put in the unfortunate position of having to act quickly without a whole lot of experience or knowledge.

He is planning to go active duty in a year, depending on options that are there for him whenever he comes off the current orders. I know we'd love a place like HI, but not too sure that Army gets stationed out there? I can't imagine why we wouldn't take something like that into consideration when asking for duty stations, but we're led to believe that action must be taken quickly if DH wants to father any children of his own.

We're waiting for his urologist appt. now---hate waiting...