The real cost of cut-price IVF
When you are considering going through IVF treatment to help you have your first baby or to grow your family – cost is of course a consideration.
When you are considering going through IVF treatment to help you have your first baby or to grow your family – cost is of course a consideration. Women’s Health Melbourne is a destination, boutique fertility clinic, partnering with Life Fertility Clinic Melbourne as our IVF laboratory.
Women’s Health Melbourne is a boutique specialist practice. We offer a bespoke model of care. Our focus is on quality of holistic care, using the best available technology, lead by Melbourne’s premier IVF specialist team.
Our patients choose us because we provide world leading care.
Our CREI Board Certified Medical Director Dr Raelia Lew has created a unique team of specialist clinicians with varied skillsets, each in their domain as qualified as she is in hers. Our experienced scientists too provide detailed support and feedback to our patients throughout their IVF treatment.
Why choose a RANZCOG Board Certified Fertility Specialist?
To become a RANZCOG Board Certified CREI Fertility Specialist requiresperseverence, academic excellence and dedication. Most specialists practicing in fertility medicine cannot claim this achievement. “Fertility Specialist” alone is not a protected title in Australia, and can be claimed by any practitioner, sometimes without valid supporting qualification.
To be eligible to attain CREI subspecilialization, a doctor must first become a specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. CREI candidates are selected to the RANZCOG CREI subspecialty-training program after having at least 6-year post graduate medical experience. The selection process is highly competitive. CREI subspecialists complete at least 3 further years of advanced training in the areas of Male and Female Infertility and IVF, working in multiple IVF units across Australia. They become expert fertility surgeons and graduate having passed a further series of challenging examinations to ensure their standards are world class. To retain their CREI subspecialist status, rigorous Continuing Medical Education (CME) Criteria are annually met.
When considering the costs of IVF treatment, I strongly encourage couples to consider the cost to them of foregoing personalised, attentive, expert care from their own RANZCOG Board Certified CREI Fertility Specialist.
Entering the mass production line style of IVF provided by IVF corporate models – aside from a lower clinical level of care, you may feel very much personally disempowered. Entering an IVF factory style clinic may even mean couples have not been offered access to the full range of less invasive, non-IVF fertility treatment options as these methods often require subspecialist expertise.
Subspecialist expertise is most badly needed by patients with more complex concerns and a poorer baseline prognosis to success.
Time to conception
IVF cumulative costs are important and can be positively impacted by accessing the best treatment, in the best hands.
The time it takes you to achieve effective care can in turn affect whether it may be possible to have more than one child over time. Receiving the best treatment may also make a huge difference in terms of stress, your confidence and your whole experience of IVF.
All the bells and whistles
Going through IVF is not easy. The best IVF units invest heavily in research and in the latest technologies to ensure patients receive world class care. Sadly, not all couples that embark on IVF, even in the best hands, will be able to have a baby. Some problems are insurmountable, but many fertility problems are multifactorial and where all elements are recognized and optimized, can be overcome.
Of course being associated with an elite fertility practice at Women’s Health Melbourne also means having treatment in a very comfortable and private environment, and having top quality staff.
Affordability of IVF is an important issue, but in many cases, cutting corners can be a very false economy.
Written by Dr Raelia Lew
RANZCOG Board Certified CREI Fertility specialist, Gynaecologist and the Director of Women’s Health Melbourne.
Co-host of the Knocked Up Podcast, Co-founder of Lovers intimate wellness solutions. Raelia has a PhD in Preconception Health Promotion and Genetic Screening. Raelia is a leading Australian expert in IVF and egg freezing, pioneering a bespoke model of care.