Though fertility treatment expenses may be very high in some countries, they can be available at manageable costs in other countries. The countries that offer lower priced ART programs and surrogacy services have been working hard on their planned programs in order to achieve a low cost treatment. This gives the customers considerable financial benefits. Below are some examples of such countries.
– In Switzerland, there is a low priced IVF foundation which operates as a nonprofit organization. It works in collaboration with the health ministry of Zambia to set up affordable IVF programs. There is a serious attempt at cost saving wherever it is feasible. A substantial saving comes from the use of clomiphene citrate, an oral drug that triggers an enhancement in the ovulation process. Here it is priced at only 12 USD per IVF procedure. In comparison to this option, the standard injection drugs are way more expensive propelling the price of the IVF treatment beyond what the average intended parent can afford.
The Swiss foundation is trying to establish the fact that IVF can well become an integral part of the public health care system of developing nations for a price as low as 300 USD per attempt, plus the cost of the medical manpower. Once this decrease in cost is achieved, it would definitely be a great strategy to reach out to more and more intended parents in need of IVF treatment.
– In several countries, infertility specialists are making sincere efforts to make ART services inexpensive enough to help infertile couples across the globe be able to afford the treatment. These couples are in desperate need to build a family. Money is a big constraint. They need a solution and fertility clinics and laboratories are doing exactly what is needed at the moment. They are investing time, money and talent into their research and development in order to figure out ways for making infertility treatment cheaper.
-Some infertility clinics are trying to go for a simplification of the diagnostic process. They often eliminate some tests which are considered standard declaring them as an unnecessary, and a waste of money.
-Good clinics conscious of the customers’ budgetary constraints and limits guide the intending parents as to what sort of treatment route to follow. This treatment should on the one hand yield effective results, and on the other be cost effective.
– As a measure of controlling clinical costs, some countries are squeezing the budget on equipment procurement. Belgium has made a notable breakthrough in this respect. Belgian clinics have done a research work in a tiny sized IVF laboratory, using inexpensive glass tubes, baking soda and citric acid to produce the optimal level of carbon dioxide with the right concentration and alkalinity required to carry on the process of fertilization successfully. The rates of successful pregnancy surprisingly were at par with standard laboratory conditions and yet the set up costs were reduced by 85- 90%. Since lesser monitoring and fewer tests were demanded by these small and simplified fertility laboratories, the routine operating costs were thus much lower. The cost slash could be passed on to the customers, making fertility treatment significantly lower for them. Thus, shoe box sized portable IVF laboratories sound immensely beneficial to the intending parents looking for a cheaper mode of fertility treatment with the same effectiveness as in much more expensive standard IVF procedures.
Two of the eminent talents from Belgium in the field of fertility science, obstetrician Dr Willem Ombelet and embryologist Jonathan Van Blerkom have been accredited for their pioneering effort to achieve a low priced IVF laboratory method, that are economically beneficial to intended parents.