The Top 5 Things I Looked for in a Fertility Clinic
OK, it’s been a while since I was a fertility patient. So it’s been even longer since I had to look for a fertility clinic—well over 10 years in fact. But the process of finding a good fertility clinic has not changed. So let me tell you the top 5 things I looked for when I was selecting my fertility clinic:
1. Success Rates. Hands-down, the most important thing is success rates. The whole reason we are doing this is to take home a baby at the end. So if the clinic cannot do that for you, then really nothing else matters. The good news is that researching a clinic’s success rates is easy. The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology AKA “SART” has a tool on its website to search SART member clinic success rates. Most clinics in the US are members of SART.
The problem is of course, that you don’t know if you are comparing apples to oranges when you try to compare two different clinics because you have no idea of the diagnoses and backgrounds of the patients. Some folks simply are better candidates for IVF and the SART data doesn’t really ferret that out beyond dividing up the rates by the age of the female patient.
However, here’s a tip: if you look at the donor egg success rates, that can give you a sense of how that clinic is doing with a very specific cohort—young women with no known fertility problems. There are still going to be some inherent differences in the donors between two different clinics, but at least now you are comparing green apples to red apples, instead of apples to automobiles.
2. Cost. Success rates are important but not everything. If you cannot afford the treatment, then it doesn’t matter how great the success rates are. Unfortunately, most of us do have to factor in costs. For surrogacy cycles, there will always be out-of-pocket expenses even if the intended parents have great insurance coverage. So looking at the costs of the specific treatment options is very important.
And there can be a mind-numbing number of options: Do you need the all-inclusive guarantee plan? Or would be better served by paying for one cycle at a time? Do you want a plan that guarantees you a certain number of donor egg embryos? Or do you need a partial-refund plan if you don’t get pregnant? And so on.
If you are lucky enough to have insurance, then you will want to look at your in-network options. In some cases, there may only be one in-network fertility clinic option. It may be that an out-of-network clinic may suit your needs better even if it’s more expensive.
3. Surrogacy Program. If you are reading this, you are probably exploring the gestational carrier option for your family-building. A clinic with a well-established protocol for gestational surrogacy will allow you to have a much smoother journey. It’s nice to be able to go to the IVF Clinic and get most of your surrogacy-related screening is done in one day. It’s even better when your surrogate can get her screening done in one visit. Clinics with strong surrogacy programs in place will be able to offer one-day workups for surrogates which (I promise!!) will make everyone’s lives much easier.
In addition, such clinics are more likely to have appropriate and inclusive paperwork. This is important because all kinds of bad things can happen if you or your surrogate sign inappropriate paperwork for your situation.
4. Donor Options. If you are using a donor, you will want to know what donor options are available at the fertility clinic. Some clinics have in-house egg donor pools which allow you to do a more affordable fresh donor cycle—this is important because male couples seeking to make embryos from each of their sperm are going to usually be looking at fresh egg donor cycles. Other clinics require you to bring your own egg donor to the clinic, which can be considerably more expensive since then you are paying an agency to locate a donor for you.
If you are using donor embryos, you will want to make sure your clinic will accept outside embryos if you plan to match privately. For sperm donation, you will want to know if the clinic requires a 6-month quarantine or will allow you to waive the quarantine.
And with whatever type of donation you are pursuing, you want to make sure that the clinic supports your choice of known donation/open ID donation/anonymous donation—not all clinics will participate in all options.
5. Location. You may be wondering--Why is this so far down the list? If numerous clinic visits can be expected for you, then you want your clinic to be close and convenient. This was the case for me—since the plan was that I would undergo both ovarian stimulation and embryo transfer, it was important that I be able to get to the fertility clinic quickly and easily.
But not everyone is in that position. If you already have plenty of embryos made, or if you will be relying upon egg donation, you won’t be making many visits to the clinic during the surrogacy process. Think as little as 1-3 visits to the IVF clinic. So that’s when you may want to think about your surrogate’s (and any egg donor’s) access to the clinic. A clinic that requires 2 flights plus a camel ride and a swim across the river to get there isn’t gonna be as manageable for a surrogate or donor as a clinic located near a large airport. A remote clinic can make you harder to match because some surrogates and donors just won’t want to make the trip. Likewise, if you really want a surrogate located in your own state, it’s ideal to find a clinic that’s local.
Bottom line: depending on your treatment plan and how important a local surrogate is to you, it may be more important to consider a surrogate’s or donor’s travel needs and place those before your own.
So those are my top 5 tips for selecting a fertility clinic on your way to a surrogate pregnancy. Best wishes for an easy surrogacy journey!