Decisions, decisions

Today, Mr Thick and I sat down to have A Very Serious Talk with Dr Y.

Basically, we’ve exhausted all our options to create that mysterious bun in the oven and we need to bring out the big guns. Physically, there really isn’t anything wrong with either of us. Oh, his boys are a tad lazy and fugly looking but men with worse have fathered children naturally. Both my tubes are nice and open with no traffic hazards in sight. My girls are popping out with regularity, although whether they are looking as Fabulously Gorgeous as I am is another question altogether.

A question that can only be answered by IVF.

And so we have made our choice: we will take the highway and coast onto the road of IVF.

It really isn’t too difficult a choice. We can, obviously, go au naturel and shag till the cows come home. Maybe we will make a baby, maybe we won’t. But I don’t want to wait till I am 35 before I push the panic button.

The only question remaining is, do we stick with Dr Y and remain in private practice or should we switch to public healthcare service?

Pros of private practice:

• We are very comfortable with our doctor, he’s been nothing but wonderful so far.
• He knows our medical history and Madam Hoochie very well. In fact, I think my cervix likes him (in a v non-sexual and non-creepy way obviously).
• Each and every scan/consultation will be done by him.
• He explains things. I hate being brushed aside and made to feel like an idiot.
• I text him ALL. THE. TIME. And he hasn’t told me to bugger off. Yet.
• He is aware of my risks of suffering from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome due to the PCOS. I am bloody terrified of developing OHSS.
• He pegs the success rate at about 40 percent at my age. Which is fairly high, even for IVF. (Yes, IVF doesn’t guarantee 100 percent success, not even close! So much for advancement of science and medicine.)
• His clinic is run like a well-oiled machine. There’s no molly-coddling but there’s no confusion either. Plus, I think the nurses like me.

Cons of private practice:

• COST, COST, COST. An IVF cycle with Dr Y costs us an estimated $15,000 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. Even after the Medisave deduction of $6,000, we are still left with a hefty $9,000 bill. And that’s for a 40 percent chance of success. If the first cycle fails, we can’t afford another $9,000. We are not rich, we don’t earn much (pitfalls of joining the frigging advertising fraternity!).
• Lack of government co-funding. One of the sore points is that you can only receive $3,000 government co-funding if you do the assisted conception cycle at a government hospital. Which pisses the hell out of me. I mean, we are all contributing to the population, right? Arseholes!!

Pros of public hospital:

• Dr Y has been kind enough to offer to refer us to a doctor he is familiar with at KKH. We trust him enough to trust whoever he recomends.
• He’s promised to monitor the cycle even if we are doing it at KKH and share our information with the new Dr Handsome (according to him, ho ho).
• COST, COST, COST. Medicines are cheaper. Hospital bills are cheaper. We are looking at potential savings of $4,000.
• Government co-funding of $3,000 is available. Which means we probably need to fork out $2,000 cash or less, after deducting from Medisave. A much more palatable amount!

Cons of public hospital:

• It’s not a con of public hospitals per se but switching over means getting used to a new doctor (even if he is v handsome) and for Dr Handsome to get to know us (and Madam Hoochie). Am a creature of comfort. Also, cervix is notoriously difficult to get to know, she’s v posh.
• The wait. There’s a wait for everything. You need to wait to get a slot to do IVF (possibly in July/August!!). You need to wait to get probed by the vajayjay cam. You need to wait to get your bloodwork done. You need to WAIT. And I HATE WAITING.
• Dr Handsome will not be doing much or any of the monitoring or scans. It will be done by random nurses, sonographers etc. BUT he will be there for the important stuff, like the retrieving of eggnoids from my hardworking ovaries and sending the eggnoids back into the Mothership.
• It’s a public hospital so we can definitely expect crowds. I don’t deal well with crowds, especially when I am a hormonal, GM cow.

We do have a preference for one over the other but I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are.

If you were us, which would you pick and why? Have you had any ART cycles done with either hospital and what was your experience like?