74% of American women would leave the US for IVF

LONDON, October 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

A recent survey conducted by Ipsos Reid to gauge American women's attitudes towards In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) has found that 74% would travel outside the US for treatment if success rates were higher and treatment costs were lower.

The trend of medical tourism is rapidly sweeping across the US and is now filtering in to medical fields where the patient is self funded as is the case for many IVF procedures.

The US patient has quickly learned to shop around for treatment, as the cost will determine whether or not their health insurance will cover the procedure. Most insurance companies do not cover fertility treatment even though it is a medical condition that stops the patient from conceiving naturally.

Barbados Fertility Centre, is one such facility located in the Caribbean with direct daily flights to New York and Miami who have seen an increase in US patients.

Dr. Juliet Skinner, Head Clinician said, "We have seen an increase in the number of patients that we are treating from the US and are very encouraged by the findings from the survey especially as our success rates are higher and our treatment costs significantly lower."

Caitlin & Tyler Vale from Junction City, Oregon who tried to conceive for two years with no success, decided to shop around for treatment and they traveled to Barbados for their IVF cycle.

Caitlin kept a track of her ovulation and aged just 26 she couldn't understand why they were not conceiving. They consulted a specialist in Oregon and learned that Tyler was suffering from male infertility with poor sperm motility and retrograde ejaculation, a condition where ejaculation is released into the bladder. They were advised their best option was IVF but the cost was out of the question, they were quoted at $12,000 -15,000 US dollars, with ICSI costing an extra $1,000-1,500USD. Their fertility specialist in Oregon also quoted them for a package of 3 IVF cycles, which would have cost them $40,000USD.

Caitlin said, "It was hard to imagine paying so much for treatment, the cost was just too high for us and as I have traveled quite a lot I feel the care of overseas doctors can be even better than in the US, so I did my research and found Barbados Fertility Centre. We then found out we could get the procedure in Barbados with a 2 week relaxing vacation as well, that was just what we wanted and thought that would work best, I spent about a year talking to them before we finally made our decision. It was the best decision we ever made, we had a wonderful experience and our baby is due in October 2011."

For Caitlin & Tyler their experience of leaving the US for treatment has had a positive outcome and only cost them $5,750USD as opposed to the $40,000USD they could have paid if they had stayed in the US.

Also their treatment in the US may not have necessarily been successful on the first occasion as the US national average success rate for IVF is only 42%, whereas Barbados Fertility Centre is reporting success rates of 72% using Blastocyst where they leave the embryos to culture for 5 days as opposed to the usual two days adopted by most US clinics.