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There are approximately 200,000 cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) for infertility every year in the United States. This is an incredible investment, both financial and emotional. Women must undergo a significant amount of invasive testing to see if they are even a candidate and then the IVF requires days of hormone injections, blood work, numerous ultrasounds and two procedures — one to retrieve the eggs and another to hopefully implant an embryo. And then the terrible waiting to see if it worked.
The average cost per cycle of IVF is $12,400, even higher for cycles where a donor egg is required or if a gestational surrogate is used, and success is not guaranteed. For a woman under the age of 35 the chance of having a live birth with IVF using her own eggs is approximately 56 percent, but the success drops significantly for women aged 35 and older. By the time a woman is 38 her chance of a successful pregnancy with IVF is about 30 percent and over the age of 42 it drops to 5.0 percent.
