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| credit: fertilityproregistry.com |
"Women who pursue in vitro fertilization (IVF) to become pregnant are more likely to give birth if they have health insurance that covers the procedure, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The key reason is financial rather than medical: For many people, the high cost for one IVF procedure prohibits women from seeking a second treatment if the first attempt fails.
The study is published March 28 in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
"It's a simple and possibly obvious finding, but it highlights the importance of health insurance in the outcome of fertility treatments," said lead author Emily S. Jungheim, MD, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine. "The biggest hurdle may not be the fertility treatment but the cost."
The American Pregnancy Association estimates the cost of a single IVF treatment at $12,000 to $17,000. The success of one IVF procedure ranges from more than 40 percent for women under age 35 to about 15 percent for women over age 40. Besides age, success may vary due to lifestyle, cause of infertility and reproductive history, among other factors.
Jungheim's study examined data from 1,572 women who sought IVF treatment from 2001 to 2010 at Washington University's Fertility and Reproductive Medicine Center, which serves women in Missouri and Illinois. The clinic's location is significant to the findings because Illinois mandates IVF coverage while Missouri does not..."
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