How do IVF meds work?

[brandi91]

Hey, everyone. I am not actually doing IVF, but I will be doing injections with timed intercourse. I’ve been researching Gonal F, as I know that is what my doctor will be putting me on due to my last appointment. I am a pretty tough PCOS case and did not respond at all to Clomid or Femara (I had no follicle growth on either).

I’ve been looking, and on ivfpharmacy.com 450 iu of Gonal-F is $490! And that’s the discounted price. I assume I will have to take the higher dosage due to my lack of a response to oral meds. Then, I read that some people took Gonal-F daily. Does that mean that they took $500 worth of meds daily? And if so, for how many days? My insurance doesn’t cover anything, and so I am getting very stressed over the costs. I will feel better if I at least understand. Thank you!

 

[Wobbles]

I moved your thread to the Assisted Conception board as you are likely to get more replies to your question

 

[DBZ34]

Hey, everyone. I am not actually doing IVF, but I will be doing injections with timed intercourse. I’ve been researching Gonal F, as I know that is what my doctor will be putting me on due to my last appointment. I am a pretty tough PCOS case and did not respond at all to Clomid or Femara (I had no follicle growth on either).

I’ve been looking, and on ivfpharmacy.com 450 iu of Gonal-F is $490! And that’s the discounted price. I assume I will have to take the higher dosage due to my lack of a response to oral meds. Then, I read that some people took Gonal-F daily. Does that mean that they took $500 worth of meds daily? And if so, for how many days? My insurance doesn’t cover anything, and so I am getting very stressed over the costs. I will feel better if I at least understand. Thank you!

For my second IVF, I had to take 450iu of Gonal per day (225 in the am, 225 in the pm). That is the max effective dose. Half of my IVF costs were meds, really. It is super expensive. I was on that for about 8 days before I triggered and had a retrieval.

 

[Wish2BMom]

ditto - my AMH was so low that I had to do 450 of Gonal per day too, sometimes for more than 12 days. I believe each pen is 900iu? So one pen would last 2 days...
Most of our costs were meds too - I think I maxed out our Rx lifetime max in our first round b/c I went through our regular pharmacy and had no idea I could order from anywhere else.
My RE's office helped me with some samples when they could and we used our HSA to help.
There is also a reimbursement program out there, I cannot think of the name of it. But you have to apply to see if you qualify. Worth it. There's certainly a lot of legwork to afford this stuff if you're not just one of those celebrities getting preggers at their 'old' age!

 

[chellesama]

Hey, everyone. I am not actually doing IVF, but I will be doing injections with timed intercourse. I’ve been researching Gonal F, as I know that is what my doctor will be putting me on due to my last appointment. I am a pretty tough PCOS case and did not respond at all to Clomid or Femara (I had no follicle growth on either).

I’ve been looking, and on ivfpharmacy.com 450 iu of Gonal-F is $490! And that’s the discounted price. I assume I will have to take the higher dosage due to my lack of a response to oral meds. Then, I read that some people took Gonal-F daily. Does that mean that they took $500 worth of meds daily? And if so, for how many days? My insurance doesn’t cover anything, and so I am getting very stressed over the costs. I will feel better if I at least understand. Thank you!

Clomid mimics the hormone that stimulates the antral follicles, prompting more of them to grow and mature. Gonal F is a gonadotrophin - it's nearly identical to hormones from the pituitary gland that stimulates the ovaries themselves, basically encouraging more of the antral follicles that are then acted on by FSH. Being a more direct actor on the ovaries, it's more effective than Clomid at producing mature follicles.

You'd be on it around 10 days (usually; sometimes more, sometimes less) and the needle is tiny and thin and trust me when I say that worrying about having to give yourself a shot is much, much worse than the actual shot.

They'll probably start you off at a middling dose and scan after a few days to see if they need to go up (or down) on the medication, since they don't want to hyper-stimulate your ovaries if you do respond well - remember, it's actually pretty different from Clomid and you might have a very different response.

Hope that helps, and good luck, Brandi!