What is the right age for an IVF treatment?

Is it 30 or 35? The right age to think of an IVF treatment.

I hear people often say that infertility is on the rise. Is it because women are getting married late? Or is it coz we are consuming chemical infused fruits and vegetables? Perhaps its coz of the high pollution levels. Well, I think it’s primarily due to our impatience.

If you go to an infertility specialist, you will never be told that you perhaps are too young for any infertility treatment or you need to consult a gynecologist first. The assumption is that you already are infertile. When I received my first IVF treatment at Fortis La Femme IVF Clinic, I was shocked to see a 25-year old who was married for 3 years and undergoing the treatment. Not sure about the reason for her decision at such a young age but I used to wonder – why wouldn’t the doctors suggest her to try naturally? Why couldn’t she consider IUI? Why couldn’t she wait for a few years as she had age on her side?

As I kept wondering, the day of the Embryo Transfer (ET) arrived. There she was howling and seething in pain, on a wheelchair, with her mom on one side and mom-in-law on the other, consoling her. She had a condition of hyper stimulated ovaries and the doctors decided not to go ahead with the transfer. Did she have hyper stimulated ovaries coz of her young age? What had mistriggered, I wondered?

Shouldn’t there be a cutoff age to consider IVF? In fact, there should be an upper age limit too. Heard about the 72-year old in Punjab having a son? As per the Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction (ISAR) president-elect Dr. Narendra Malhotra, the upper age-limit for a woman to undergo IVF treatment is 45 years and no more. Why not have a lower age limit too? Unfortunately, one of the past presidents of ISAR, Dr. Hrishikesh D Pai, was the one to treat the 25-year old mentioned above.

Since IVF is not a disease, a lot of infertility specialists treat it like a cosmetic surgery. In the absence of laws to govern it, the doctors do what they please and also what some unreasonable couples seek.  

How much does an IVF cost?

It's one of the biggest concerns when couples are considering an IVF treatment. Whatever the cost of the treatment, let me tell you (which no one else really thinks about) the cost of a failed IVF. The cost of a failed IVF is intense heartache that may take days and sometimes months to heal. There's a piece of your heart that dies forever. Every time you see the bruises on your thighs or tummy from the 30+ shots, the painful memories keep coming back to remind you of your incapability. I always say that IVF takes a huge toll financially, physically and mentally but that's just an understatement. Unless you have a really patient and caring family, and especially husband, it's hard to recover. 

Since I've had the tendency, IVF treatments have made me gain weight too. The doctors, without informing you, will administer steroids that obviously lead to weight gain. Imagine the double trauma of having to lose despair and weight. 
  
Infertility clinics, typically, have IVF packages. Usually, the cost of a package does not include the cost of the medicines, laboratory tests and any precondition that might have to be treated to get you IVF ready. For example, I required a laparoscopy before the first IVF, biopsy before the second and another laparoscopy before the third. For reasons beyond comprehension, IVF or infertility are not covered under medical insurance in India (which makes you feel all the more worse for spending so much money from your own pocket). Insurance companies feel that IVF is not a disease for which you go to the doctor but a condition, and therefore most commonly not covered. Now the debate if it should be or not, is a topic for another blog. 

One should be prepared to spend around Rs. 2 lakhs (under a package at Fortis or Max) and another Rs. 50,000 for the medicines and tests. If you have to be treatment to prepare for an IVF, then consider another Rs. 50, 000 - 1 lakh depending on the severity of the condition. 

After a failed IVF, the doctors suddenly might lose patience with you (you're a bad case study for them) but don't forget to follow up for possible reasons of the IVF failure. In the 3 attempts I've had, the doctors never educated on what to do if IVF fails or succeeds. So in case of failure, stop the medicines and wait for your periods (which normally should happen in a week or so). If the cycle is successful, continue the medicines after confirming with the doctor and wait for your 6-weeks scan.