Costs and availability of clinic services
Following is a summary of services offered by various clinics and examples of out of pocket costs at the time of writing, May 2007. This information is offered primarily to give some understanding of the lack of real choices available to women.
Treatment costs are subject to change, and the total costs incurred will depend on a woman's individual treatment. The range of treatments offered are also subject to frequent change, particularly due to the availability of clinic donors.
There are many factors influencing women’s choices about how to attempt conception. Realistically, one will always be cost. The high and rapidly-increasing cost of all forms of fertility treatment excludes many women. For women forced to travel interstate, add the costs of travel, accommodation and potential loss of income.
Another factor, increasingly, is that clinics are increasingly not offering donor insemination (DI), in part because of the scarcity of donors. Victorian women are unlikely to travel to do IVF, because if they require it to conceive, they should be eligible – due to medical infertility – in Victoria.
ACT Fertility Centre
This clinic no longer offers DI, only IVF, in part because of the donor shortage, and because their success rates are so much better with IVF. They use Australian and overseas donors. IVF costs are $2942 per cycle, with an additional cost of $200 for Australian donor sperm, and more for
overseas donor sperm.
Queensland Fertility Group
Brisbane is currently treating many interstate women. They have no Australian donors at present, but hope to have two in the coming months. Australian donors can only be used for IVF, not DI. They have US donors (whose are ‘identity release’, as per Victorian donors) available for DI. DI costs are $485 per cycle, plus $700 for US donor sperm, plus doctor fees for consultation and treatment.
Sydney IVF
This clinic does not provide any clinic donor sperm. They provide DI and IVF without discrimination, but only to women with known donor sperm. Their DI cost is $600.
Albury
At the time of writing, Albury had no donors available, but hoped to have one soon. They had recently closed their waiting list for treatment. The cost of DI is $1094, plus $300 for donor sperm.
Monash IVF
Note that Monash IVF only offers DI to single and lesbian women with a known medical infertility. The cost of DI is $828, plus fees for consultation and testing and $210 for donor sperm. The cost of IVF is $3,629, plus anaesthetist and hospital bed fees.
Melbourne IVF
Availability is as per Monash IVF.The cost of DI is $500, plus fees for consultation and testing, and the cost of donor sperm is $1,100. The cost of IVF is $2,525, plus $240 for the anaesthetist and $262 –$740 hospital bed fee.
The Known Donor Self-insemination program costs at the time of their introduction in January 2005 were $500 upfront, $200 for sperm testing and screening, $198 per year sperm storage, $40 for each sperm sample provided after the first four, plus various fees for consultation and testing every cycle.
