“Waiting for Baby $55,000 and counting,” an article published in Time Magazine (read it here: http://time.com/money/page/waiting-for-baby/), details the devastating financial and emotional situation of the Zamipich couple. For many couples, the story may seem all too familiar. Carrie and Dan Zamipich have been struggling with infertility for five years. They pursued costly treatments, none of which worked but all of which dented their finances severely. Their debt mounting and Carrie’s biological clock ticking, they have now turned to treatment with an egg donor after multiple rounds of IVF. The article mentions a few helpful options to help minimize debt when considering costly treatments and surgeries, but what it doesn’t mention are the alternative options the couple had at the beginning of their journey. If I were the couple’s fertility consultant, I would advise them to enhance the probability of conception during the first treatment by preparing her body—through healthy diets and low stress environments, something extremely difficult when one is struggling to conceive and to pay off debt—for pregnancy. This is the best way to minimize fertility costs.

In general, as women age after they turn 30, there is a progressive increase in the incidence of infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects due to declining egg quality. As a result, I focus the improvement of egg/embryo quality as the key treatment of infertility issue. In my clinic, I have seen over fifty cases of women who were over 40 years old but, after 3-6 months of acupuncture and herbal treatment, were able to conceive naturally or with the help of IVF.” I’ve also seen over hundreds of patients with low ovarian reserve who were also able to conceive with our help. Most of them had failed multiple IVF treatments before they visited us. In terms of cost, this is one of the most reasonable options—we only charge $90 per week for the acupuncture fertility program, which includes acupuncture and herbs (just a bit of shameless self-promotion).

But in all seriousness, maximizing your chances of conception from the beginning—and thus reducing the need for future treatments—through options like acupuncture and herbal medicine is the best way to minimize infertility costs.