Question for a friend- PGD

Does anyone happen to know what PGD costs ?

Do some insurance companies cover the cost of it ?

My insurance stinks and doesn't even cover IVF, so I couldn't help her and knew you girls might have the answer

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

I have a great case of different coverages!

At the time I had my insurance and DH's insurance.

My insurance covered 80%, I was responsible for 20% of the actual PGD costs. We had to show reason for needing the procedure done (genetic issues for me and we were able to use slightly abnormal SA for DH). With DH's insurance, they cover PGD 100% if proof is shown (genetic disorder), but would not cover IVF. We did even try to use slightly abnormal SA, but because I had a previous pregnancy, and we hadn't been trying again for one year since the m/c, his insurance wouldn't budge on the IVF. I didn't understand how they could cover the PGD and not the IVF, since in order to do the PGD, I ultimately had to do the IVF.

Our making of the probe (we used genesis genetics) was around $3000 (i think) and then through the insurance, the actual procedures were about $5500. Those costs will vary depending on what company is used to make the probe and which RE's office you use for the actual biopsy.

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

I think the cost might depend on what your testing for-- when I was going to do it it was a little over $2,000, I paid out of pocket and was going to submit the claim to my insurance but ended up not doing the PGD so I just got reimbursed by them--so anyway long story short lol- not sure if my insurance would have covered some it. Good luck to your friend!

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

My insurance did not cover PGD. Well, we actually had the embies tested using a new method of PGD that tests all 24 chromosomes.. We had to pay out of pocket total cost was $5900

That included:

The thawing of the embies
The Microarray PGD testing
The refreezing of the embies

For us, it was worth the $$ as only 1 out of our 6 embies was normal. Obviously there was no gaurantee that I was going to get pregnant with the one normal, but it greatly increased our odds and minimized the risk of miscarriages. I also only had one IVF attempt left on my insurance, so we wanted to really maximize our chances.

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

It cost us roughly 5K out of pocket...about $2900 to the lab and the other to our RE. I had heard after the fact that I might have been able to get insurance to cover however i never submitted it. We plan on trying for #2 soon so I will be looking further into it. We were able however to deduct it on our taxes.

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

I paid $6500 for PGD and then got about $2500 back from my insurance. However, I would really advise against PGD. Most doctors don't like it and many women end up losing all of their eggs once they are tested.

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

Thank you to all who responded....I will pass along the info, I knew you ladies would be helpful !!

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

Posted by Domino

Posted by SecretTTCer

I paid $6500 for PGD and then got about $2500 back from my insurance. However, I would really advise against PGD. Most doctors don't like it and many women end up losing all of their eggs once they are tested.

There are some very good reasons to have PGD done so I wouldnt necessarilly scare off OP's friend if she has a legitimate concern. PGD has its uses and there are many doctors who DO advocate for it.

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

Posted by MrsRbk

Posted by Domino

Posted by SecretTTCer

I paid $6500 for PGD and then got about $2500 back from my insurance. However, I would really advise against PGD. Most doctors don't like it and many women end up losing all of their eggs once they are tested.

There are some very good reasons to have PGD done so I wouldnt necessarilly scare off OP's friend if she has a legitimate concern. PGD has its uses and there are many doctors who DO advocate for it.

I agree.

I'm sorry if you had a bad experience, but that isn't necessarily the case all the time.

In our case, all but one embryo either had an extra chromosome or missing one. For us, it was peace of mind knowing we gave ourselves the best possible odds to expand our family.

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

Just to clarify, I am not against PGD. I just think women have to realize that it is possible to "throw out" embryos that would have resulted in perfectly healthy babies. Many people do end up with having no embryos to put back. The alternative to PGD is to put back the embryos and then do a CVS and terminate any abnormal fetuses at that point. Obviously, this is a very personal decision. I think PGD is probably best when you have a specific disease that you are testing for.

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

I usually dont do this on this board because us ladies have enough stress and grief, but I think while PP's intentions are in the right place, I respectfully disagree with the information. Yes, there is an error rate of about 5% with PGD...and that goes in either direction....an embryo is deemed normal when in fact it is not and on the flip side an embryo is deemed abnormal when in actuality it was not. To say that in that five percent the embryos would have resulted in perfectly healthy babies is misleading, as we all know, since not every IVF cycle results in a BFP. In my case after PGD we transfered three "perfect" embies and wound up with not triplets.

To say that the alternative to PGD is to play "wait and see" is not really accurate either. Many chromosomally abnormal embies will not even make it to the CVS or amnio stage in order to be "terminated." Most will not implant or will result in a miscarriage.

For many going through IF, saving themselves from repeated IVF failures and recurrent m/c's is worth the 1-5% error rate associated with PGD. For even more, the 5% error rate is worth having to later make a decision to terminate something that they have waited so long for to begin with.

For me, I told my RE that if I had a 95% chance of knowing that my embie was chromosomally normal and that I had a 95% chance of not having to suffer through a m/c again, to me those were pretty good odds.

Here's the source of the "throw out" article if you want more information on PGD PGD Info

Re: Question for a friend- PGD

You are correct with the error rate, but that wasn't really what I was referring to. Embryos which are deemed abnormal when tested with PGD can autocorrect themselves later on. But if you do PGD, you don't have that option because once it is deemed abnormal they won't put it back. I am not sure if I am explaining it clear enough.

You are right about the bad embryos not implanting or miscarrying. That is another reason why I preferred doing the CVS over PGD. I figured that most likely if the embryo was abnormal it wouldn't make it to the CVS. If I was still pregnant by week 12 then chances were really good for me that the embryo was normal. I double checked with the CVS. But not everyone would be OK with the stress of waiting that long to know.

These are all really personal decisions. For me, it made more sense to put back more embryos and let them decide for themselves who was going to back it than to decide up front with PGD. I got pregnant on my non-PGD cycle and got a BFN on my PGD cycle. I only learned afterward that my experience wasn't unique. But my guess is that you did PGD for a different medical condition than I did so it must have made more sense for you.

I am not anti-PGD. Women just need to realize that it is a real possibility that they could go through stim, pay a lot of money, and end up with no embryos in the end to transfer. That is all I am saying.

Message edited 3/2/2010 10:30:35 PM.