The real cost of IVF: How much would you pay to be a mother?
The study, carried out by Red magazine as part of their Annual National Fertility Report, revealed that most women would take on extra work, sell possessions and sacrifice pensions to fund fertility treatment if they had difficulty conceiving. And they would be willing to spend an average of £15,000 on IVF – with one in ten prepared to shell out as much as £50,000. One in five would even consider moving house if it meant better fertility treatment on the NHS, as there is perceived to be a difference in NHS IVF provision, depending on where you live.
More than 90 per cent said they would cut back on holidays, eating out, clothes and beauty products to pay for treatment. And it is the grandparents-to-be who they are increasingly turning to for financial help, with 30 per cent of women having treatments asking their parents or other family members for money, up from 14 per cent last year.
The desire to become a mother would even drive women to seek treatment abroad: three quarters of the women surveyed think IVF in the UK is too expensive, and 30 per cent said they would have their treatment abroad, where it is considerably cheaper, if it meant they could be a mother.
Nearly 45,000 cycles of IVF are performed in Britain each year. In the private sector, each one can cost more than £5,000.
Sam Baker, editor-in-chief of Red, said: 'Our report shows that women are prepared to make huge financial sacrifices as they do whatever it takes to conceive.'
IVF basically stands for 'in vitro' which means 'in glass' and essentially means a man's sperm is added to his partner's eggs in a laboratory so that fertilisation happens in controlled conditions outside of the body. IVF is an option for many couples who are finding it difficult to conceive naturally. The fertilised embryos are then put back into the woman's uterus where the pregnancy will hopefully continue. However, there are a series of complex steps, which have to be carried out in order for IVF to be successful. The success rate relies on the age of the woman, and the age of the eggs involved in the process.
What would you sacrifice to be a mother? Have you ever had IVF, and how did you find the experience? We’d love to hear your stories.
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