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The cost of a single IVF cycle can start anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000, but the total cost varies a lot. Learn how much you'll need to budget for IVF.
Published on July 25, 2024 In This Article In This ArticleApproximately 1 in 8 couples experience fertility challenges. Often, in vitro fertilization (IVF) can be helpful. If you're considering IVF, you're likely weighing lots of questions, including whether it will work and how much IVF will cost. It's no secret that IVF treatment is expensive—and most health insurance companies pay little to nothing toward the cost.
Facing IVF treatment can feel overwhelming. But getting a sense of the cost of IVF, including knowing that prices vary substantially from fertility clinic to fertility clinic, is key. Understanding your options can help you decide whether or not to pursue this fertility treatment—and figure out how you'll pay for it. Learn more about how much you'll need to budget for IVF.
According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the average cost for one IVF cycle is more than $12,000. However, prices vary significantly with other sources estimating the cost per cycle being closer to $20,000 to $25,000. These numbers may or may not include the cost of IVF medications or other fees, which can add up quickly, particularly if you need to do multiple cycles. In the most expensive areas of the country, the cost per live birth with IVF can exceed $60,000.
That's an incredibly wide range. One of the reasons that getting a straightforward answer about how much IVF costs is because every IVF patient and fertility treatment is different.
One 2014 study asked couples at a fertility clinic to track all their out-of-pocket expenses over 18 months. This included what they paid for the IVF, medications, and monitoring. The average couple spent $19,234. For every additional cycle, couples spent on average an additional $6,955. So, according to this study, if a couple went through three cycles, that added up to a little over $33,000 in out-of-pocket expenses—and this was over a decade ago.
Before you panic, remember that there are ways to get discounts and pay less for IVF. There are also bulk IVF and refund programs.
While insurance doesn't always cover IVF, your insurance may cover part of your expenses. For example, they may cover monitoring, or they may cover a portion of your medications. That can decrease the price significantly. Always ask before assuming you can't afford IVF.
Let's say your clinic gives you a price quote of $13,000. You go online, find another clinic, and they tell you they can give you a cycle for $7,000.
Should you switch clinics?
Experts agree that you should price shop when looking at IVF treatment. Take into consideration both the quality of the clinic and the cost. However, before you jump to a clinic for a lower price, make sure you're getting a full quote.
If one clinic is giving you the estimated price for everything, while another clinic is telling you the cost only for the IVF procedure itself, you can't compare the numbers.
When you get a quote, ask the clinic if the price includes:
If you choose a clinic far from home, don't forget to include the costs of travel, hotel, and time off work.
It’s also important that you don’t confuse micro-IVF, or mini-IVF, with conventional IVF treatment.
Mini-IVF uses lower doses of fertility drugs and involves less monitoring of the growing embryos before transfer. As a result, mini-IVF costs significantly less than traditional IVF at $5,000 per cycle on average. However, mini-IVF isn't for everyone.
Mini-IVF is best suited to couples who are also considering intrauterine insemination (IUI), and for those couples, mini-IVF comes with some advantages. For example, it is less likely to lead to a multiple pregnancy when compared to IUI. With IUI, you can't control the number of possible follicles or resulting embryos. With mini-IVF, you can choose to transfer just one embryo.
With that said, success rates for mini-IVF are not yet clear. Mini-IVF may be better than IUI, but if you really need full IVF, it may not be the best treatment option for you. Consult with your OB-GYN about which treatment option is best for you.
While basic IVF costs around $12,000 to $16,000 per cycle, if you need additional assisted reproductive technologies, the cost will be higher.
For example, ICSI treatment (where a single sperm is injected directly into an egg) may be an additional $1,000 to $2,500. Genetic testing of embryos, or PGT, may be around $3,000 or more. (It may go as low as $1,800 or as high as $7,500.)
Embryo freezing, including the initial freezing and storage, may cost an additional few to several hundred dollars. Yearly storage fees range anywhere from $200 to $800 per year.
If you have frozen embryos from a previous cycle and want to use them, doing so is significantly cheaper than doing a complete IVF cycle with fresh embryos. The average cost for a frozen embryo transfer (FET) is about $3,000 to $5,000.
If you plan on using an egg donor, the overall cost will be significantly higher—from $25,000 to $30,000 for one cycle. Using a sperm donor is less expensive, costing anywhere from $200 to $3,000 extra, or between $13,000 and $17,000 per IVF cycle.
Embryo donation is the least expensive of the donor options. It's often cheaper than a regular IVF cycle. An embryo donor cycle costs anywhere between $5,000 and $7,000. This is assuming the embryo has already been created. (As opposed to choosing an egg donor and sperm donor and having the embryo created specifically for your cycle, which would be extremely expensive.)
Many fertility clinics offer payment programs to help make IVF treatment more affordable. Don’t write off IVF before you talk to your clinic about your options.
While price comparisons are important when choosing a fertility clinic, you should also consider their success rates. If an IVF clinic has a very low price, but their success rates are low, and multiple cycles may be needed, then choosing the cheaper clinic likely isn’t worth it.
The fertility treatment coverage offered by health insurance plans varies widely. Some plans offer generous benefits that can greatly reduce your out-of-pocket costs, while others offer little to no coverage for IVF or other fertility treatments. That said, multiple states have laws requiring minimum levels of fertility treatment coverage to be offered or provided by health plans in their states. Check with your health plan to find out what your plan covers, if anything.
There are also refund programs, where you pay a set fee, usually between $20,000 and $30,000. The clinic will refund part of your money if you do not get pregnant after three or four IVF treatment cycles. Not all couples qualify, and the terms vary from clinic to clinic.
There are advantages and disadvantages to refund programs. In favor of the programs, if you don't get pregnant, you will get back at least part of your expenses. (You won't get a refund for medications, so it isn't a full refund.) Also, if you need all three or four cycles to conceive, you may pay less per cycle than if you paid as you went.
On the other hand, if you get pregnant on your first cycle, you will have to pay much more than necessary. Most refund programs won't accept you if they think you're unlikely to get pregnant quickly.
Other options for paying for IVF treatment include:
The steep price of IVF is the number one barrier to treatment for many families. Take your time deciding whether IVF treatment is something you can and want to afford, and look into all your payment options. Also, keep in mind that it's OK to decide not to pursue IVF. There are many possible reasons not to continue with fertility treatments, and avoiding debt (or avoiding too much debt) is one of them.
