Fast-Tracking Fertility Treatments: Babies for All?
Good news may be on the horizon for childless couples who are weighing the option of infertility treatments. A method designed to fast-track fertility treatments may save couples money . . . and ensure a better chance that mom will get pregnant.
The study in the newest issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility tracked women going through a standard fertility treatment regimen and women being fast-tracked.
Those in the standard route took three cycles of fertility pills with intra-uterine insemination (IUI), plus three cycles of fertility injections with IUI. Those were followed by as much as six cycles of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
Fast tracking meant omitting the cycles of IUI and fertility injections. Instead, the three cycles of pills and IUI were followed directly by IVF. It struck three cycles off the time plan, thereby allowing women to get pregnant faster. The couples in the fast track system conceived in an average of eight months compared to eleven months before the women in the standard route achieved conception.
According to the researchers, the data reveals more women should be offered the quicker option – because not only time constraints will be lessened but the costs of undergoing treatments (no cycles of injections means not PAYING for cycles of injections).The average couple in the fast-track program saved more than $2,000 over their standard protocol counterparts.
Even better for women who are concerned about multiples (and the world who is already Octo-Mom and Gosselin-hating), the study found the newer protocols should reduce the chances of multiple conceptions.
It all sounds good . . . but (come on, there’s always a but) . . . because this study was conducted with the cooperation of insurance companies, this was addressing fertility treatments covered by insurance (not all are). If this protocol is good for women (and their partners), by all means, make it available.
However, I worry that a portion of the study that founds today’s fertility treatments by and large have good success rates will be overlooked by insurance companies looking to save big. If the current process works, and women need that extra – currently standard – treatment, let’s hope this study is not used to deny them that.
Image: Newsweek
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Huh. My fertility doctor wanted to “fast track” me after four cycles of Clomid plus IUI didn’t work. She said that it was likely the injections plus IUI wouldn’t work either. My insurance paid for the injection drugs but not anything else, so we decided to try a cycle or two of injection plus IUI. I got pregnant with multiples the first cycle-triplets but miscarried one early on. My twins are two years old now. I am glad I didn’t skip directly to IVF, which was much more expensive! We think what did the trick in my case was a cycle of birth control pills right before. I would caution people to really think about skipping the injections plus IUI, especially if the drugs are covered by insurance, as the drugs are the most expensive part. Plus, they are more powerful than Clomid and work by a different mechanism.
Injections with IUI have a stunningly low success rate (as does Clomid with IUI (which I did). There’s hope in the infertility community that OctoMom and Kate Gosselin might actually spur more insurance coverage of IVF because it’s much less likely to cause multiples (if you have a remotely ethical doctor which OctoMom did NOT). Injectibles are also used with IVF but there’s some control over how many embryos are put back, while with IUI if you somehow managed to get six, you’re stuck between selectively reducing or carrying a very risky high-order multiples pregnancy. No one “needs” that extra bit of treatment IMO–if you ovulate on Clomid but don’t get pregnant, there’s no real benefit to going on to injectibles plus IUI. If you don’t, why not do something that is much more likely to work and will also reduce the chance of multiples if you’re going to be using those powerful injectibles anyway? (This all assumes insurance coverage, of course–IVF costs $15,000 per cycle, and if I remember correctly injectibles are about $5,000 per cycle, and few insurance plans cover it which makes me all angered up).
I wish I had been “fast tracked.” I was never a good candidate for anything but IVF, but we jumped through the hoops, wasting time, emotional energy and money. My problems were largely mechanical due to scar tissue, etc. so it was sort of obvious what wouldn’t work.
Except IVF is much more expensive and intrusive. It makes sense to go to it sooner if there’s good reason to believe that taking more time with less-invasive procedures will be ineffective for a particular individual, but not as a general rule, unless IUI+ injections is only effective for a minute percentage of women.
I think whether IVF is the best choice for someone would depend on what exactly the fertility problem was. The only fast track I wish I’d had, was I wish my dr. hadn’t told me to try for a year then come back for tests. It would have saved me a lot of heartache if I had known I wasn’t ovulating from the beginning. Injection & IUI worked for me first try (clomid didn’t).
I got pregnant using IUI and clomid–twice…first try both times. I realize I am extremely lucky, but I’d rather start out slow and then go on to bigger things…but that’s just me. When we were thinking about the 4th kid, my re wanted to move me up to IVF because of advanced maternal age. No thanks….unless the IUI wouldn’t have worked and then we would have considered it.
Marj, didn’t your doctor run any tests on you?? I had to go through a boatload of blood work, charting my temps, HSG, an endometrial biopsy etc and found out that I wasn’t ovulating before they tried anything.
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Fertility treatments should be banned. It’s nature or God telling you YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE CHILDREN. If you are wondering why so many kids are having issues like ADHD and Autism and the rise – this is why. It’s GENETIC. Miscarriages and an inability to get pregnant means your genetic tissue does not match up well with his. Get over it. Go spend all that money on a baby that is already here and needs parents.