Today’s Economics of Fertility Treatment

Atlanta, GA – Since the beginning of the current economic downturn, everyone has been wondering how new financial considerations and constraints are affecting the decisions people make about a variety of reproductive medicine procedures. While there have been no national data collections, researchers have been evaluating their own clinics’ data and local data to arrive at some answers.

Many have speculated that more women would turn to compensated egg donation to try to supplement falling incomes and net worth in the downturn. To either confirm or disprove the reality of this phenomenon, researchers at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine undertook a comparison of egg donor applicant characteristics from the 2002-2004 time period and 2008. Fifty-four interview records from 2002-2004 and 46 records from 2008 from a single private oocyte donation program were reviewed and compared. During both periods, the same person conducted the interviews and the same questionnaire was used. No significant difference was found in the applicants’ demographic characteristics. The age of prospective donors, their history of previous donation cycles, their education level, marital status, distribution of religions and religiosity remained consistent from the earlier period to the later. The largest difference to emerge was in the donors’ plans for use of their compensation. In 2002-2004, 28% planned to use the money to pay for schooling. This increased to 57% for 2008. Differences in other planned uses for the money were smaller: from 2002-2004 to 2008, the number of women planning to use their compensation to pay debt decreased from 32% to 21% and the number planning to save the money decreased from 20% to 11%.

ASRM President-Elect, William Gibbons, MD noted, “While we expect economic trends to have an impact on peoples’ choices and behavior, we find that the motivations and expectations of women who apply to be egg donors do not seem to have changed drastically from the years before the economic downturn. Although more women may be entertaining the idea of donating eggs and seeking information on the procedure, the ones who follow through to the next step are similar to the women who have been donors in the past.”

Reproductive Medicine Associates and Mt. Sinai in New York undertook another record review which revealed that patients who have frozen embryos in storage and may have been postponing making a disposition decision might be prompted by poor economic conditions to expedite their decisions. Looking at records from October 2006 through March 2009, researchers noted the time embryos had remained in storage for each couple discontinuing storage and determined the frequency of each disposition option: donation for research, donation to another couple or discarding embryos. They found that the number of patients discontinuing storage was similar for semiannual intervals from October 2006 through September 2008. But beginning in October 2008, significantly more patients disposed of frozen embryos than in earlier intervals. The researchers concluded that external influences (i.e. the economy) had indeed caused a sudden change in embryo storage habits.

Certain patients, having received a diagnosis of infertility are less likely than others to pursue treatment with assisted reproductive technology (ART) even if it means abandoning their goals to have a child. Sociodemographic and psychological variables can predict when a couple is less likely to pursue assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment. Both financial concerns and depression are significant impediments to seeking assisted reproductive care. Four hundred and forty-eight couples seen at eight ART practices were followed for 18 months to discover what influences caused a couple to discontinue treatment. At the time of recruitment, the patients answered questionnaires to assess sociodemographic, reproductive, and psychological factors. They were followed over the study period with interviews and medical record reviews. One hundred and twenty-one patients decided not to pursue ART treatment. Financial reasons (58%), life conflicts (38%) and medical futility (26%) were among the reasons most often given. Other conditions that influenced the decision were depression; a five point increase in depressive symptoms on a test instrument led to a 20% decrease in a patient’s likelihood of pursuing ART. A five-year increase in age resulted in decreased odds of using ART. In contrast, education equal to or above the college level and greater income increased the chances that patients would pursue ART. SART President Elizabeth Ginsburg, MD said, “Offering psychological evaluation and, if indicated, treatment for depressive symptoms is another way we can help fertility patients get the best possible care.”

In Sublimis we offer affordable Fertility Treatments so don’t  hesitate to contact us for more information.

Related posts:

1. Accelerated Fertility Treatment Leads to Shortened Time to Pregnancy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 8:58 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.