egg-freezing

Egg Freezing Cost

With age the fertility window and odds of natural pregnancy decline. Egg freezing is an option that many women seek out in a fertility clinic. However, high egg freezing prices are often a barrier to fertility preservation through egg freezing. 

How Much Does Freezing Eggs Cost?

The egg freezing process itself can cost up to $11,000. A study shows that out-of-pocket egg freezing expenses ranged from as little as $1000 per cycle to more than $18,000 per cycle. The average cost per cycle was $6966 (1). 

Remember that price shopping is a dangerous game to play when it comes to egg freezing. Patients should consider the expertise of the doctor, the lab the doctor works with, and the success rates of a particular clinic when making a decision of where to freeze their eggs. A smaller number of eggs in a more experienced clinic may yield better results than twice that number in a clinic with low success rates.

Egg freezing cost also varies by geography with New York City being one of the costliest places to freeze eggs.

Number Of Egg Freezing Rounds

Additionally, keep in mind that many patients may need more than one cycle to get pregnant or retrieve a number of eggs that give you higher chances of pregnancy. The more eggs you have frozen, the higher your chances are of having a live birth from them. Some clinics may also offer discounts for additional cycles done at the same clinic. Eggs frozen at a younger age are also more likely to yield a live birth and thus, patients who are older may want to freeze more eggs and undergo more egg freezing cycles than patients who are younger. On average, women undergo 2.1 cycles of egg freezing.

In addition to the cost of the the egg freezing procedure, patients should also set money aside for the following costs:

Egg Freezing Medication Cost

You will be using injectable medications that are required to stimulate the production of eggs around 10-12 days prior to the procedure. Egg freezing medications cost around $5000. 

Egg Storage Cost

There is also a fee to store the frozen eggs which can cost between $500 to $1000 per year. For USC fertility, egg freezing includes storage up to the end of the calendar year. 

Total Egg Freezing Cost

All in all, the total egg freezing cost for one round without insurance can be up to $16,000 or maybe more depending on geography.

The Cost Of Using Frozen Eggs

Egg Thawing, Fertilization Of Eggs, and IVF

Related: PGT Testing: What Is Preimplantation Genetic Testing In IVF?

This cost will incur at the time that you are interested to begin the fertilization process and is also not included in the egg freezing costs. Thawing, fertilization, and embryo transfer can cost $5000 or more. There are many different pathways for IVF and each of these has a different cost associated with it. In a situation where IVF is associated with a diagnosis of infertility, many states will mandate partial or entire coverage. 

Egg Freezing Without Hormones 

Your ovaries develop a single egg per month. The egg freezing medications contain hormones that will stimulate your ovaries to produce more so you can have several available for retrieval. Most women above the age of 30 prefer to freeze around 20-30 eggs to maximize their chances at pregnancy.  Without the additional hormones you would not yield a high enough volume of eggs so egg freezing without hormones is generally not done. 

Egg Freezing Insurance

Whether insurance covers egg freezing is dependent on the terms of your insurance. It is generally not fully covered by insurance. However, if you have diagnosed fertility issues or are undergoing treatments (e.g chemotherapy), there are high chances it will be partially covered. There are many people who have insurance that covers a specific portion of the treatment. 

Employer: Some employer provided insurances will cover anywhere from 1 to 4+ egg freezing cycles. For example 27% of tech companies provide insurance that will cover reproductive procedures like egg freezing. This is much greater than the 14 percent of companies of those not in the tech sector that will cover such costs. (2)

State: In some states, it is mandated that healthcare insurance cover fertility procedures. However, the rules on what is covered for fertility treatments can vary from state to state. According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine there are 9 states that mandate medically necessary egg freezing (3):

California

Connecticut

Delaware

Illinois

Maryland

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

Rhode Island

Sources: 

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024226/
  2. https://healthcareinsider.com/health-insurance-cover-egg-freezing-61867
  3. https://www.reproductivefacts.org/resources/state-infertility-insurance-laws/?_ga=2.149701686.1422531538.1590414244-1636409454.1589989279

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