It Is What It Is

IVF is very intimidating. After our appointment with SGF, my mind was going a million miles a minute. There are so many moving parts and so many unknowns. I LOVE unknowns... The first steps we had to take are submitting for insurance authorization and then meeting with a financial counselor through the clinic. The clinic took care of the insurance side, but we had a phone consultation with our financial counselor a few days later.

That 30 minute phone conversation was the most odd appointment I've ever had. Every question we asked, she answered with uncertainty. Everything was "I'm not sure" or "We won't know yet." While I know that some things can't be shared with certainty until an approval comes in, some of it should have been. It left me feeling frustrated and confused.

My biggest reason for experiencing anxiety during this time was due to all the uncertainty. I knew my insurance would approve it, but I didn't know to what extent. I also didn't know if the approval would expire in a few weeks when July came as that is when my insurance re-ups. I asked if the financial counselor could ask the company this and she said "it's possible." Uh... ok. If it is possible, can you do it?! I know that they do this kind of stuff for a living, but this is my life. Have some empathy and compassion.

While waiting for insurance approval, my new nurse (got reassigned one for IVF) sent me a schedule pending we have approval by July 3rd. I felt better having a plan and some dates in mind. It gave me some sense of what the next month would look like. That plan was thrown out the window when I had to cancel my appointment for the morning of July 3rd because the approval was not yet in.

Then, sure as sh*t, that very afternoon, the approval comes in. Ugh! The whole schedule has to get postponed a week because the company couldn't have answered just a few hours earlier. They took every minute of their "14 business days" to review the request. So I have a new schedule and it is what it is.

The insurance approval came with good news and bad news. The good news is that it will cover the egg retrieval and transfer along with most medications for 3 cycles. All I have to pay is copays for each visit and for the prescriptions. What it won't cover is the trigger shot, ICSI, PGT, and cryopreservation. That one shot for whatever reason is just never covered by insurance. Who knows why? ICSI stands for intracytoplasmic sperm injection which basically means they inject my eggs with sperm rather than waiting for the little guys to wiggle themselves over in the Petri dish. PGT is genetic testing of embryos. If we end up with any viable embryos, they will be biopsied and frozen. The biopsy will be tested to see if it is "normal" or not. This could help prevent another miscarriage so we and the doctor felt it was worth it. Cryo is the freezing and storage process.

So all that adds up to about 7k per egg retrieval (give or take). Is that the end of the world? No. Am I grateful to have coverage at all? Absolutely. Am I pissed that I have to figure out the financials just to have a chance at motherhood? You bet. So many people in the world take for granted their ability to procreate. Many do it without trying! Then there are people like me who deal with infertility where saying, "Babies are expensive" is taken to a whole new level. Maybe the odds will forever be in our favor and it will only take one try. Fingers Crossed!