So, I haven’t read all of the responses but I am going to chime in with who or why someone should choose a shared risk program.
Women with poor egg quality, DOR, multiple miscarriages or ectopics are great candidates for this program. Of course, if you have more than one of these above mentioned, even better. For example:
I have DOR, had two miscarriages and a mild MFI issue. My RE gave us a 20% chance of getting ONE embryo that was of transfer/freeze quality. My AFC was between 2-4 each cycle and we had 6 failed IUIs. The 20% chance was a HUGE gamble when paying OOP – our retrieval cycle alone was about $12k, and my meds were expected to cost around $10k (luckily insurance pulled through here).
Our first cycle, we got ONE embryo that made it to freeze (from 4 mature eggs retrieved). We did NOT PGS test this embryo due to the cost, and had about a 50% chance that it would be viable. Because of my DOR and hormone levels, my RE told me that it is fairly possible that any pregnancy would kick me right into menopause and I wouldn’t ever ovulate again, therefore no chance for a second biological child.
We opted to do a second retrieval immediately: which meds were now fully covered, but we still paid about $8500 for the retrieval. We got 2 (non-PGS tested) embryos to freeze from this one.
Our first FET failed, leaving us with only 2 remaining and a cost of $750 to do the transfer, not including meds.
Our second FET was successful, I’m currently 33 weeks along. We paid another $750 + meds and have one more frozen for a potential sibiling.
Our OOP costs were likely the price of a decent retrieval package. 6, IMO, is a very large and taxing on your body amount of needed. But, here is another example.
A friend of mine has had 4 retrievlas. She got a package for 3 – all yeilded 2-3 PGS normal embryos (6 total) and the clinic allowed her to do them back to back before a transfer. Unfortunately, the first embryo did not survive the thaw. Her second ended in an ectopic, third transfer was failure to implant and the 4th, another ectopic. They have 2 left but chose to do another retrieval cycle. They want more than one child. They might need to use a surrogate. She has been going through IVF for 3 years now and as you can see, the package was absolutely worth it in their case.
If you have had no previous pregnancies, miscarriages, hormonal issues other than MFI. I would honestly take the risk and pay for one OOP to see how many embryos you can get to day 5/freeze. There is a good chance you will have plenty, the average woman retrieves 12 eggs and has about 30-50% of fertilized make it to freeze. Even if you had to pay OOP for transfers, it could very well end up being less expensive than a package. If the cycle doesn’t go well, then maybe consider a package prior to any other attempt wiht the IVF process.
Hope that answers some of your questions!
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