What does my fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment cost?

This ar­ticle ex­plains the costs of fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment, so you can focus less on the fi­nan­cial side and more on the hap­pi­ness of your up­co­ming fa­mily.

Would you like a per­sonal as­sess­ment and ad­vice on the topic of fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment and the as­so­ciated costs?

Our team will be happy to as­sist you with a free con­sul­ta­tion!

The costs of fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment (IUI, IVF, ICSI) are an obs­tacle to fa­mily plan­ning for many. High cycle costs with the pos­si­bi­lity of nee­ding se­veral cy­cles can be a con­siderable burden for ex­pec­ting par­ents.

The basic pre­re­qui­site for cost co­verage is ap­pr­oval of the in­di­vi­dual tre­at­ment plan by the he­alth insu­rance fund. This ap­pr­oval is ap­plied for in con­junc­tion with a tre­at­ment plan drawn up by the doctor/ fer­ti­lity centre.

Cri­teria for the as­sump­tion of costs for fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment

Below you will find an over­view of the cri­teria that are also re­le­vant for the he­alth insu­rance com­pa­nies.

Mar­riage

A re­gis­tered he­te­ro­se­xual mar­riage is a pre­re­qui­site for the he­alth insu­rance com­pany to cover the costs of fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment.

Same-sex cou­ples and un­mar­ried women curr­ently have to bear the costs of fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment com­ple­tely by them­selves.

Age

Age is an im­portant cri­terion when it comes to the ques­tion of cost co­verage by the sta­tu­tory he­alth insu­rance.

The woman must be at least 25 years old & may be a ma­ximum of 40 years old.
The man must be at least 25 years old & may be a ma­ximum of 50 years old.

What pro­por­tion of the costs is co­vered?

The he­alth insu­rance fund is le­gally ob­liged to cover at least 50% of the costs of as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion.

Since the 50% is a lower limit, there are also dif­fe­rences bet­ween the sta­tu­tory he­alth insu­rance funds. De­pen­ding on the he­alth insu­rance com­pany, up to 100% of the costs are co­vered.

How many cy­cles will my he­alth insu­rance pay for?

It often takes se­veral cy­cles of as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion be­fore the wish for a child comes true. As a rule, the sta­tu­tory he­alth insu­rance co­vers:

• 8 cy­cles of in­trau­te­rine in­se­mi­na­tion (IUI) wi­t­hout hor­monal sti­mu­la­tion.
• 3 cy­cles of in­trau­te­rine in­se­mi­na­tion (IUI) with hor­monal sti­mu­la­tion.
• 3 cy­cles of IVF or 3 cy­cles of ICSI.

Some he­alth insu­rances reim­burse the costs for more than three IVF/ICSI at­tempts.

How many cy­cles do you usually need? You can find out more about this topic below!

What else is co­vered by he­alth insu­rance?

The he­alth insu­rance only co­vers costs that are in­curred for the tre­at­ment of the insured person — but not for the tre­at­ment of the partner, which is co­vered by your own he­alth insu­rance.

• For women, this in­cludes all gy­nae­co­lo­gical tre­at­ments.
• For men, the insu­rance usually co­vers the costs of sperm coll­ec­tion and pro­ces­sing.

In most cases, the costs of the me­di­ca­tion for hor­mone sti­mu­la­tion (1000–1500€) have to be paid by the pa­tient.

If you are not sa­tis­fied with the ser­vices pro­vided by your he­alth insu­rance, it is pos­sible to ch­ange your he­alth insu­rance for in­fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment. It is wort­hwhile to make an in­di­vi­dual com­pa­rison of the he­alth insu­rance com­pa­nies, their ser­vices and the con­tri­bu­tion rates.

Fi­nan­cial sup­port for your fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment from the German go­vern­ment is pos­sible under cer­tain cir­cum­s­tances. Here you will find an over­view of the re­le­vant in­for­ma­tion.

Pre­re­qui­sites for sup­port

The pre­re­qui­site for fe­deral fun­ding is a co­ope­ra­tion agree­ment with the fe­deral state in which the pa­tient has his or her main re­si­dence and also uses a fer­ti­lity centre.

Curr­ently there are co­ope­ra­tion agree­ments with:

• Ba­varia
• Berlin
• Bran­den­burg
• Hesse
• Meck­len­burg-Wes­tern Po­me­rania
• Lower Sa­xony
• North Rhine-West­phalia
• Sa­xony
• Sa­xony-An­halt
• Thu­ringia

In ad­di­tion to the main re­si­dence in a co­ope­ra­ting fe­deral state, the fol­lo­wing cri­teria must be met:

• Me­dical de­ter­mi­na­tion of in­fer­ti­lity
• Cer­ti­fied pro­s­pect of suc­cess of the fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment
• Ex­clu­sive use of egg and sperm cells from own partner
• Prior me­dical and psy­cho­so­cial coun­sel­ling
• The woman must be at least 25 and no more than 40 years old.
• The man must be at least 25 and no more than 50 years old.

Since the eli­gi­bi­lity gui­de­lines are not uni­form for every fe­deral state, there may be ad­di­tional rest­ric­tions in the in­di­vi­dual fe­deral states.

It is the­r­e­fore worth ta­king a look at the Fe­deral Go­vern­ment’s “Fun­ding Check” — here you can ea­sily de­ter­mine eli­gi­bi­lity for fun­ding and re­ceive fur­ther in­for­ma­tion on how to apply.

In­trau­te­rine in­se­mi­na­tion (IUI) is a me­thod of as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion in which pre­pared sperm are trans­ferred pain­lessly into the uterus at the time of ovu­la­tion with the help of a thin tube. Ovu­la­tion can either be waited for in the na­tural cycle (non-sti­mu­lated IUI) or in­duced with me­di­ca­tion (sti­mu­lated IUI).

With in­trau­te­rine in­se­mi­na­tion (IUI), costs of 400–800 euros per cycle can be ex­pected. The final price per cycle de­pends on the tests per­formed and the me­di­ca­tion re­quired.

The suc­cess rate of an IUI cycle is around 10–15%, de­pen­ding on va­rious fac­tors. These in­clude the age of the woman, the mo­bi­lity of the sperm and how long the child wish has re­mained unful­filled.

In in vitro fer­ti­li­sa­tion (IVF), eggs and pre­pared sperm are brought tog­e­ther in a Petri dish under la­bo­ra­tory con­di­tions for fer­ti­li­sa­tion, this takes place in­de­pendently due to the pre­served sperm moti­lity. The fer­ti­lised egg(s) grow in an in­cu­bator to be im­planted in the uterus at the em­bryo stage.

In vitro fer­ti­li­sa­tion costs bet­ween 3000–4000 euros per cycle. The final price is de­ter­mined by the highly va­rying costs of me­di­ca­tions de­pen­ding on age and the re­mai­ning egg re­serve. The chosen fer­ti­lity centre also plays an im­portant role in the pri­cing.

The suc­cess rate of an IVF cycle can be up to 50%, de­pen­ding on the age of the woman — so se­veral cy­cles of IVF may be ne­ces­sary until the wish for a child is ful­filled.

In­tra­cy­to­plasmic sperm in­jec­tion (ICSI) in­volves in­jec­ting a single sperm into the egg under a mi­cro­scope in the la­bo­ra­tory using a thin needle. This is also the main dif­fe­rence bet­ween ICSI and classic IVF tre­at­ment.

For ICSI, the wo­man’s eggs are re­moved under an­aes­thetic and the part­ner’s sperm is pre­pared be­fore the tre­at­ment. After fer­ti­li­sa­tion of the egg and ma­tu­ra­tion to the em­bryo stage, it is trans­ferred to the wo­man’s uterus.

The most com­monly used me­thod of as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion — one cycle of ICSI costs 4000–6000 Euros. Again, the final price is highly de­pen­dent on fac­tors such as the number of eggs re­trieved and the me­di­ca­tion re­quired.

The suc­cess rate of an ICSI cycle is highly de­pen­dent on the age of the woman, but can reach up to 50% — again, se­veral cy­cles may be needed be­fore pregnancy oc­curs.

Many dif­fe­rent in­di­vi­dual fac­tors in­fluence the suc­cess of the tre­at­ment, so it is not pos­sible to make a ge­neral pre­dic­tion about the li­keli­hood of suc­cess.

Ho­wever, below you will find ge­neral sta­tis­tics on the number of cy­cles needed until the goal of pregnancy is re­a­ched.

• About 80 per­cent of women be­come pregnant after three to four cy­cles of IUI.
• 2 out of 3 women who start IVF be­fore the age of 35 will ful­fill their de­sire to have a child wi­thin three IVF cy­cles.
• Women under the age of 30 have a 44% chance of ful­fil­ling their de­sire to have a child with their first IVF cycle.
• Women under the age of 30 have a 69% to 92% chance of ful­fil­ling their de­sire to have a child after seven cy­cles of IVF.

For those with pri­vate he­alth insu­rance, the con­tract and the be­ne­fits it in­cludes are de­cisive. It is the­r­e­fore worth going th­rough the insu­rance con­tract in de­tail and, if ne­ces­sary, con­sul­ting the pri­vate he­alth insu­rance com­pany.

You can find more in­for­ma­tion on the topic of pri­vate he­alth insu­rance in our ar­ticle “Cost co­verage for as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion”.

Do you have any fur­ther ques­tions? We are happy to help you with your ques­tions and con­cerns about in­fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment with a free con­sul­ta­tion.

At Fer­tilly, we have made it our mis­sion to ac­com­pany cou­ples (ho­mo­se­xual and he­te­ro­se­xual) and sin­gles on the way to ful­fil­ling their child wish. In doing so, it is im­portant to us to create trans­pa­rency in the area of fer­ti­lity ser­vices, to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion and know­ledge on the to­pics of pregnancy and fer­ti­lity and to help you to find the most sui­table Fer­ti­lity Center. Th­rough co­ope­ra­tion with first-class Fer­ti­lity Cen­tres and cli­nics in Eu­rope, en­qui­ries about Fer­tilly are given pre­fe­ren­tial tre­at­ment. This means that our pa­ti­ents avoid the usually long wai­ting times and get ap­point­ments more quickly.

If you would like more in­for­ma­tion about Fer­ti­lity Cen­ters, suc­cess rates and prices, please contact us using this ques­ti­on­n­aire. We will ad­vise you free of charge and wi­t­hout any ob­li­ga­tion.

Sources:

1. https://www.kup.at/kup/pdf/8054.pdf
2. https://www.deutsches-ivf-register.de/jahrbuch.php
3. Nas­triet al: Co­ch­rane Da­ta­base Syst Rev 2012 Jul11;7:CD009517.doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009517.pub2
4. https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article/13/1/77/751486?login=true
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17357343/
6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22455744/
7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16786421/
8. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2017/207/3/assisted-reproductive-technology-australia-and-new-zealand-cumulative-live-birth
9. https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/women-now-have-clearer-statistics-whether-ivf-likely-work
10. https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article-abstract/26/1/16/5643748?redirectedFrom=fulltext
11. https://www.netdoktor.de/kinderwunsch/kuenstliche-befruchtung/iui-intrauterine-insemination/