Choosing Spain

Nobody ever imagines that conceiving a child could cost them $30,000. But at the point where we last left off on our posts, that’s exactly what we were facing with IVF. The chance of success with IVF compared to the success of IUI are greater because the doctors and embryologists are taking mother nature out of the equation to a more significant degree. However, this requires a greater degree of involvement from the doctors, and therefore it is significantly more expensive.

When we were presented with the idea, we were crushed. While there are many options for financing and paying for IVF, not many people have $30,000 at their disposal. So we did some researched and checked with out bank and decided that we needed to put things on hold to focus on us and making our marriage as strong as possible

At the time, I had an intern at my work who knew what Cole and I were going through and she introduced me to a local blogger who had just finished completing a round of IVF in Prague. After some social media stalking, I started my own research on international IVF and came across this website. It offered a ton of information on international IVF and it felt very transparent when it came to the procedure and medication costs, as well as the procedure itself (something that we didn’t feel like we had with our local reproductive clinic).

We eventually settled on going to Spain, as both Cole and I speak a bit of Spanish and felt like we could get around a bit more than some of the other countries. We then decided to use Barcelona IVF as, once again, their website was incredibly thorough and transparent. It gave a great timeline for the procedure which was something we felt like we didn’t get with our previous clinic experiences.

We had our first consultation via Skype in March 2018. After this, we felt optimistic, anxious, and nervous, as we began the process. When we told people we were going to Spain, most people asked “why Spain?” The answer was mostly financial, but we quickly grew to realize it was also personal. Financially, the clinic estimated it would cost us 9,000 euros for the procedure and medications, which is less than a third of the US price. Not only that, but we were going to take 5 weeks to spend focusing on us as a couple and on making a baby, whereas, when we had done fertility treatment in the past, we also had to focus on the day to day stuff and our marriage/baby making was sometimes put on the back burner. The decision to make Spain work was a win-win for us. Plus, our employers were accommodating of the idea and we were able to take the time off that we needed to make it happen.

Our first step was to obtain karyotype testing, which is a genetic test. Unfortunately, they tend to be very expensive and rarely are they covered by insurance. We were lucky enough to have a laboratory that was able to complete it, despite our ordering physician being out of country. After sending this information, as well as our records from our local clinic, we were sent a prescription for the medication regimen.

Around that time (early April 2018), we also booked our flights to Spain and ordered our medications. Typically, when one receives a prescription from a doctor, you are able to go to your local pharmacy and pick up the medications. Unfortunately, because our ordering physician was out of the country, we were limited in this area. We utilized IVFMeds to place our order and it was relatively easy, except there wasn’t a lot of instruction – after uploading our prescriptions, selecting the medications, and placing the order, we received an email saying that the order was received and we should receive an email regarding how to pay.

These instructions came shortly after and instructed us to send a significant amount of money by wire transfer. Sounds sketchy, right? Cole agreed and we both did research about the site, which provided mixed results, but nothing to indicate that the site was fraudulent. Unfortunately, our bank (which is a local credit union and uses a third party for wire transfers) decided it didn’t like us sending money to that company, and they canceled the transfer!

After a lot of back and forth to the bank, we got the money transferred and meds successfully in our possession. However, during this time, we also had to change our flights due to concerns that medications would not arrive on time. This was a setback financially, but it was definitely a piece of mind that, should the medications not have arrived, we could have also purchased them easily in Spain, as there was a pharmacy right next door to the clinic. Luckily, through this whole process, we had an amazing patient coordinator from the clinic emailing us daily so that we could ask any questions that we had.

It was a quick turn around between March and May, but we were set to leave for Barcelona, Spain on May 8 and would be returning to Idaho June 15th, hopefully with something “extra” on board!