Army - talk to the finance people. Roughly, out of pocket, I think IVF with ICSI is in the ball park of 12,000-14,000 k? Meds are on top of that and can be 3-6K, depending on which drugs, your dose, and how many days you stim for. There are also packages you can buy - several cycles for a discounted rate (but if you don't need the extra cycles, you don't get your money back). They may also offer discounts for military folks. If Dr. M puts you on menopur as one of your drugs, PM me - I might know where to get some for free, wink wink. The alternative to menopur is low dose hCG, and it's much cheaper than menopur, FYI.
As for length of time - I first saw Dr. M in May. We attempted an IVF cycle in May, but I didn't stim well, so we converted to IUI and it didn't work. We tried again in June, and I made it to retrieval, but we had to freeze the embryos because the were slow growing and didn't make it to blastocyst stage on day 5 (RMA only does blast transfers on day 6). Then the lab closed down in July, so I had to wait until August for my transfer. So the whole thing took a few months, but it's well worth the wait. One thing to know, is that especially if you are in the older bracket, you should really think about doing PGD (called CCS at RMA) to screen your embryos for abnormalities - the rates of chromosomal abnormalites goes way up after 35 - this costs $4500 per cycle, on top of the other costs. Also, ask about the banking program. It's an expensive route because you will go through more than one retrieval (which is $$) to get as many embryos as possible, and have them all screened (instead of paying $4500 per cycle for the screening, you'll pay $7000 which covers testing up to 15 embryos). Then when you have "enough" normal embryos - most people seem to feel comfortable with 2-6 - you do a frozen embryo transfer. This banking program is especially worthwhile if it turns out that you don't stim well (not a lot of eggs), or if you don't produce many blasts, or if a lot of your blasts are abnormal. If I had it to do all over again, I would have done this, so I'd have some blasts from my 34 year old ovaries on ice for future children. As it is, I will have to go back to RMA when this little one is still very young, and start again at 35 or 36. Also, ask Dr. M about supplements (DHEA and CoQ10). Also do the laser acupuncture when it's time to transfer - it increases success rates by 5-8%. Someone else said the hcg wash also increases success rates, so if you can elect to have that done, do it.
Kins, I'm sorry to hear your news, but it's *almost* doubling. It's very close really! I don't know why they are so negative.... My nurse at RMA said they want to see it double within 72 hours, or go up by 66% in 48 hours... and you are achieving that. FX for you.
She said she saw my name and wanted to come in and do it. She said I am her patient and wants to be the one to do all the tests!! That really meant a lot to me 
