The cost of private IVF in the UK: how much is it?

IF YOU'RE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR IVF TREATMENT ON THE NHS – OR IF YOU'D SIMPLY RATHER GO PRIVATE – lots of private clinics around England and Wales will be happy to treat you. But how much does private IVF treatment actually cost? How do you navigate your way through clinics’ overly complex “pricing” pages to be able to compare different options in your area? And are the prices vastly different anyway – or are they all much of a muchness?

Here's what you need to know…

What’s a ballpark price for private IVF treatment in the UK?

Market research firm Opinium compiled data from 70 fertility clinics in March 2018 and found that the price for a single IVF cycle ranged from £2,650 to £4,195 (with the average being £3,348). Prices were often higher outside London – with clinics in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton and Oxford being among the most expensive. That might seem surprising, but there's intense competition for your ovaries in the capital.

Those fees usually don't include registration/consultation fees or fertility drugs – the costs of which vary from clinic to clinic. All in all, you'll end up spending anywhere between £3,855 and £7,175 for a single cycle.

What is an IVF “cycle” at a private clinic?

A single cycle at a private clinic (often called a “standard IVF cycle” or “standard IVF package) is treatment in which your ovaries are stimulated, eggs are extracted and fertilised, and one resulting embryo is transferred back into your uterus – which is called a “fresh embryo transfer” (often abbreviated to “ET”). Sometimes two embryos are transferred. Any remaining embryos can be frozen (usually for a fee of a few hundred pounds) and stored for transfers in the future (usually for a separately yearly fee of another few hundred pounds).

Note: the NHS has a different definition of an IVF cycle – which, to me, is just one of the many ways in which IVF effs up your already-confused brain more than is strictly necessary. For more about NHS cycles, read this.

If your fresh embryo transfer is unsuccessful and you have any remaining embryos on ice (the ones that you’re paying a few hundred pounds a year to store), you can use them for “frozen embryo transfers” (often abbreviated to “FET”). BUT even though those frozen embryos were created during the IVF cycle above, the frozen embryo transfers aren’t part of the private IVF cycle. A frozen embryo transfer, therefore, costs extra. (And, of course, if your cycle is successful, you're in the same position: if you want to have another baby, you'll pay again for a frozen embryo transfer.)

If your cycle is unsuccessful and you don’t have any remaining embryos on ice, you’ll need to pay for another cycle.

So that’s a regular, standard IVF “standard” cycle as defined by private fertility clinics. It involves a fresh embryo transfer and (for extra fees) the freezing and storage of any remaining embryos that aren’t transferred.

If you want to freeze ALL your embryos from the start and avoid a fresh embryo transfer completely, it’s called a “freeze-all cycle”. (Women who are at risk of ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome are often advised to do a freeze-all cycle.) All your embryos will go straight in the freezer (which, again, costs a few hundred pounds a year), and you'll do a frozen embryo transfer when you're ready – which is charged separately.

Freeze-all cycles, then, don’t involve an embryo transfer. But the price is often the same as a “standard” IVF cycle (presumably because it includes the cost of freezing your embryos – which isn’t included in the price of a “standard” cycle). And you’ll still have to pay for each frozen embryo transfer.

How do I navigate the complex “pricing” pages on clinic websites?

The information below will give you some guidance on how to estimate the cost of the IVF cycle you plan to have. It will also help you more accurately compare prices across different clinics: one clinic might appear more expensive than another, but the first clinic may include items such as blood tests and medication in the price, whereas the other one doesn’t.

(Note that I can’t possibly include all types of treatment here, so I’ve tried to include the most common. If you’re doing ICSI, donor transfer, or something else, the following information should help you get started – but you’ll need to look for other relevant costs associated with your treatment on each clinic’s pricing page.)

If you want to do a fresh embryo transfer, look out for the following sections on the pricing page:

1: “Consultations and pre-treatment investigations”

• You’ll usually have to do all of the consultations and investigations listed on the pricing page: initial consultation; virology screening (HIV, HEP B, Hep C); semen analysis; ultrasound; and ovarian reserve test.
• The price varies widely from clinic to clinic, and is usually in the range of £250 to £300 (consultation only) PLUS £115 to £500 (pre-treatment investigations/ultrasounds/tests).
  
  Note:
  • Some clinics may combine both prices into one consultation “package”, which consists of the consultation itself plus all the tests and screenings.
  • Particularly cheeky clinics will also have a separate “treatment review consultation”, which costs an extra £100 or so.

2: “IVF standard cycle/package”

• This usually includes blood tests and ultrasound scans during treatment, plus egg collection, sperm collection, fertilisation and a fresh embryo transfer.
  
  Note:
  • Virology screening is sometimes included at this point rather than in the pre-treatment investigations.
  • Certain clinics will offer a “standard cycle” package that includes freezing any remaining embryos (and sometimes also storage for one year).

• The price (when not including virology screening or freezing of remaining embryos) ranges from about £3,000 to £4,700.

3: “IVF medication” (usually estimated)

• Medication is rarely included in the cost of the IVF cycle/package above.
• The price ranges between £150 and £1,500 depending on your specific needs and hormone levels.

4: “Embryo freezing/storage for remaining embryos”

• This is if you have any embryos left over that you wish to freeze. As mentioned above, some clinics will offer a package that includes a fresh transfer plus freezing/storing any remaining embryos. Most clinics, however, won’t.
• The price is about £400 for “cryptopreservation preparation” (i.e. freezing) plus around £350 (per year) for storing all embryos from one cycle.

If you want to do a freeze-all cycle, look out for the following sections on the pricing page:

1: “Consultations and pre-treatment investigations”

• You’ll usually have to do all of the consultations and investigations listed on the pricing page: initial consultation; virology screening (HIV, HEP B, Hep C); semen analysis; ultrasound; and ovarian reserve test.
• The price varies widely from clinic to clinic, and is usually in the range of £250 to £300 (consultation only) PLUS £115 to £500 (pre-treatment investigations)
  
  Note:
  • Some clinics may combine both prices into one consultation “package”, which consists of the consultation itself plus all the tests and screenings.
  • Particularly cheeky clinics will also have a separate “treatment review consultation”, which costs an extra £100 or so.

2: “Freeze-all cycle“

• This usually includes blood tests and ultrasound scans during treatment, plus egg collection, sperm collection, fertilisation and embryo freezing.
• As mentioned above, a freeze-all cycle often costs the same (or sometimes more) than a standard IVF cycle, even though it doesn’t include an embryo transfer. I assume the is because it includes the cost of freezing your embryos – which isn’t included in the price of a “standard” cycle.
  
  Note:
  • Virology screening is sometimes included at this point rather than in the pre-treatment investigations.
  • Certain clinics will offer a “freeze-all cycle” package that includes one embryo transfer (from frozen) and embryo storage for up to one year. If a clinic does this, the overall price of a freeze-all cycle will be higher. There’ll also be a stipulation that the embryo transfer must take place within a certain number of months.

• The price (when not including virology screening, one embryo transfer or embryo storage) ranges from about £3,000 to £4,700.

3: “IVF medication” (usually estimated)

• Medication is rarely included in the cost of the IVF cycle/package above.
• The price ranges between £150 and £1,500 depending on your specific needs and hormone levels.

4: “Frozen embryo transfer”

• It usually costs around £2,000.

5: “Embryo storage (per year)”

• You may have to pay for this separately if it’s not included in the price of a freeze-all cycle.
• You’re looking at around £350 per year for storing all embryos from one cycle.

If you want to do a frozen embryo transfer and you already have the embryos stored on ice (i.e. from a previous freeze-all or “standard” cycle), look out for the following sections on the pricing page:

1: “Frozen embryo transfer”

• As above, it includes scans, thaws and transfer, and it usually costs around £2,000.

2: Consultations and pre-treatment investigations

• You may or may not have to do some/all of the consultations and pre-treatment investigations listed above.

Plus: extra costs to be aware of for all of the above cycles (which may or may not be included on each clinic’s “pricing” page)

• Blood tests during IVF treatment (different from the pre-treatment investigative blood tests). These are sometimes included, sometimes not.
  
  (Each clinic will make it clear if this is included in the price of treatment or not, but – if the answer is “not” – the clinic’s pricing page may not actually divulge how much the blood tests will cost you.)

• The fee charged by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates fertility treatment in the UK. The fee is £80 for each treatment (so it’ll be £80 for the IVF cycle, then £80 each time for any frozen embryo transfers).

Remember that everything above is for one cycle (or subsequent embryo transfers using stored frozen embryos).

Do all clinics charge similar amounts for similar services?

Similar-ish.

Fertility clinics are free to set their own prices, which means the same treatment could have divergent prices across clinics. This is often down to location: as I said earlier, certain regions are more expensive than others for IVF. In fact, clinic groups with multiple locations will often charge more at some clinics than others.

Another reason for differing prices is that some clinics will only take on “easier” patients who have a higher likelihood of success – such as those who are under a certain age and weight. This is a less frequent reason, but is certainly true of ABC IVF in London, which has extremely low prices but also has extremely strict criteria for treatment.

BUT just as different prices are likely across clinics, the opposite is also often the case: two clinics might look like they have vastly different prices purely because they present the costs of treatment to you differently. It’s therefore important to be sure you’re comparing like with like.

Interestingly (but perhaps unsurprisingly, given the reasons for higher prices above), there seems to be no correlation between higher prices and better success rates or higher client satisfaction.

Yowza… private IVF is expensive! Are there any ways in which to make it cheaper or spread the cost?

Yes! Read my article on tips and suggestions for affording private IVF in the UK.