How we saved up and paid for IVF in cash

Chase and I both felt like we shouldn’t go into debt to pay for our IVF cycle.

I’ve had this strong feeling that we needed to become debt free. I always heard this voice in my head… “you really shouldn’t go on that trip because you’re in debt,” or “you really shouldn’t buy this because you’re in debt.”

This is the way I see it, you take out a loan and your cycle fails and you didn’t have any embryos to freeze, what do you do?

I don’t know about you, but I would be upset and would be reminded of a failed IVF cycle every time I made a payment on that loan.

With our first IVF cycle in January, my insurance was changing companies at the beginning of the year. So we proceeded to use what was left to pay for IVF meds in December. I still had to pay roughly $2,500 for the meds.

My new insurance company unfortunately had a lifetime fertility treatment cap of $5,000. We used all of that for our first IVF cycle. We also paid a $3,000 deposit to our clinic for blood work and other things the insurance wouldn’t cover. I used my insurance to bill for blood work, but my insurance wouldn’t cover any additional IVF cycles.

That means everything for our future IVF cycle is out of pocket.

In one of my Facebook infertility support groups, I asked “how did you go about paying for IVF?”

Some couples responses:

• couples taking out loans
• taking out a second mortgage
• borrowing from their 401K
• the government helped pay (in other countries)
• they used bonuses from work

It’s really disheartening that insurances won’t cover infertility and that majority of infertile couples are taking out loans for fertility treatments.

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So moving forward on our next IVF cycle my first thought was “how the heck are we supposed to pay for this cycle?” Because I met my lifetime cap for infertility coverage, and we’re trying to get out of debt, how are we supposed to pay for this?

We figured we could save $6-8,000 on our own over 4 months, but we’d still need to find a way to get the rest of the money. The financial coordinator at our clinic said it would cost $9,600 with ICSI and then a range of $4-6,000 for fertility medications. They will still bill my insurance for blood work.

At this point not knowing how to pay for IVF, Chase and I decided to hold a fundraiser. We thought of having a bake sale, yard sale, food trucks, character meet & greets and were considering doing live entertainment.

We set up a Go Fund Me account for out of towners who wished to donate, but we only had that stay up for maybe a month.

While getting the fundraiser ready we calculated that with enough intensity and determination we could save up the money all on our own.

What we did may work for some, and it may not work for all.

I listen to Dave Ramsey every day when I’m at work. One day on his show, I heard him say to a couple (not word for word) with a similar situation: “You need to put that same intensity in saving up for IVF, as you are with getting out of debt.”

So we did just that. We did receive some help from family and friends though it wasn’t much.

So this is how we saved up for IVF in 4 months:

1. Created a budget
2. We cut a LOT of things out of our budget. That meant not going out to eat, not buying things, selling all.the.things, staying in for dates rather than going out, not going out to movies, not going on vacation, etc. We basically have not spent any money at all.
3. Paid minimum on ALL debts. This includes, car loans, student loans, personal loans, etc.
4. Cut our monthly food budget down to $100. We make simple meals. I know doing this was extremely hard and I had thoughts telling me that it wouldn’t be possible. Those thoughts were coming from someone other than God, and I quickly deflected them.
5. Prayed a LOT for help with saving up money. We were also SO thankful in our prayers by being able to save money, and having a successful fundraiser that wasn’t going towards our IVF cycle.

I don’t think Chase and I could have saved up enough without the help from God.

I have so much gratitude toward God in helping us deciding to start a family. He knows we’re doing everything we can to achieve our goal.

Yes, there have been a few setbacks with saving up. Even with those setbacks we still did way more than we could’ve on our own.

It definitely took a LOT of sacrifice, BUT it will be so worth it in the end.

I know that anything is possible with the help from God and from our own hard work and determination.

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P.S. Be sure to check out my post on 10 tips to help you pay for IVF in cash!
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