Medication Update

In my last post I mentioned that our doctor had sent through an appeal to get my medications covered by insurance. 2 of the meds, Progesterone and Cetrotide, were initially approved, and 4 of them, Menopur, Gonal-f, hCG and Leuprolide Acetate, were denied. I called the specialty pharmacy department nearly every day to check on the status over the past few weeks. Every day I would get the same answer, “the appeal is still pending”. That is until Monday, when instead I got the answer I was looking for, “Approved!”

Menopur - Approved with just a $70 copay! Just this being covered will save us over $1500!

Gonal – f (Follistim) – Approved. The denied the Gonal-f, however they approved a similar drug called Follistim, saving us nearly $730. This medication seems like it will be more convenient for me. Follistim is injected using a pen like needle. I’ll just put the vial in the pen, twist the dial on the bottom for the correct dose, and use the teeny-tiny needle to inject the medication into the skin of my stomach. Seriously, this needle is tiiiiny! The dial on the pen will also be much simpler than drawing up into a syringe. We are planning a camping trip to Interlochen at the beginning of August, so if my timing is right, I’ll need to give myself injections in a tent. Not Ideal, but the Follistim pen will make this much easier.

Look how tiny that is!! 

Leuprolide Acetate – Denied again. We will need to pay full price for this one out of pocket.

hCG - Denied again. I will take the name brand, Pregnyl, instead which is half the price of the generic hCG. 

So they didn’t approve all of the medication, but 4 out of 6 is pretty good! We are celebrating this as a win. I ordered all the medication yesterday and I am expecting a giant box of needles and drugs to be delivered to my door on Friday. 

I have stressed out about every aspect of the IVF process and almost everything has worked out in our favor. This reaffirms our belief that we are doing the right thing, I received an email that RGI should be done with our DNA probe by the end of this week, my meds will be here on Friday and next week we will officially begin our IVF cycle. 

-Emily