All the Bills Bills Bills

Ah yes, the bills. Just one more lovely side to infertility, as if the stress of everything else isn’t enough. While most couples pay for a nice diner and maybe some lingerie or candles for their baby making, we could have put a down payment on a second house, bought a new car or paid off a few student loans for ours.

The bills have been rolling in steadily for the last 5 months and they don’t appear to be ending anytime soon. In 2019 we were been billed $59,127.54 for infertility treatments, ($28,200.62 for Eric and $30,926.92 for me). Thankfully for us our insurance picks up most of the costs but we have both easily reached our out of pocket max, leaving us with a bill of $11,900. Add that to the $22,222.75 billed in 2018 ($9,229.74 for Eric and $12,993.01 for me), with us owing $10,363.76 after insurance and we are already at a healthy $22,263.76 for the 3 embryos we have. That’s $7,421.25 per child and we’re not even pregnant yet.

There is no money back guarantee with infertility saying I will give birth to a baby. EVER. This is all money spent in hope and faith that I will. This total also does not include the expenses for a frozen embryo transfer, which is the next step for us. I expect another $3,500 - $5,000 in charges for that. I can’t complain however because I am fully aware that for most couples in our situation there is no insurance coverage and treatment is completely out of reach. I will forever be grateful to Eric’s job with The American Red Cross and the infertility coverage they offer, it is because of them we were able to pursue treatment!

While it is still extremely expensive, if it works it will certainly be money well spent. I just wish everyone else would stop and think before complaining about how difficult pregnancy is or how expensive children are. There are some of us that pay $8,000 for a single embryo, a single chance, and for us that is our only hope of having a biological child.