Fertility treatment costs top $25,000 per cycle as demand grows

Fertility treatment costs can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars as demand grows, with a single egg retrieval and embryo creation cycle averaging $25,000 and most patients needing more than one round to achieve pregnancy.

"As emotional as buying a house is, it doesn't hold a candle to having kids, wanting to have kids and wanting to get pregnant," said Meg Bartelt, a financial planner who pursued fertility treatments when starting her family.

Egg retrieval and embryo creation cost about $25,000 on average, according to Sunfish Technologies, a platform that helps people plan for fertility procedure costs. Testing those embryos adds $3,000 to $5,000, and each embryo transfer runs about $5,000, plus medication. Most people need more than one cycle. Over 40 percent of companies now offer overall fertility benefits, up from 30 percent in 2020, according to a 2024 survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

The financial stakes rival home purchases and college tuition, and the planning burden falls on patients navigating insurance limits, employer benefits and out-of-pocket medication costs. A proposed Trump administration rule from May would mandate "robust fertility coverage" in employer health plans, though it remains in the proposal stage and has not been finalized.

The cost breakdown varies by age and diagnosis

The exact price tag depends heavily on age and whether a formal infertility diagnosis shapes the treatment plan, said Jaime Knopman, a reproductive endocrinologist at CCRM Fertility of New York. Someone trying to conceive at a younger age may need different treatments than someone starting later in life. Demand is climbing as the average age of first-time mothers and fathers rises, with more women freezing their eggs than ever, according to a study from the University of California, Los Angeles, and more single women and female couples pursuing IVF.

"I've had a lot of people going into this thinking 'IVF will be one cycle — if I need it,'" said Angela Rastegar, founder of Sunfish. "But the reality is, the cost can vary so much."

Insurance and employer benefits come first

Before financial planning begins, patients should dig deeply into their insurance plan, said Abby Eblen, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Nashville Fertility Center and co-host of the podcast "Fertility Docs Uncensored."

"Over my almost 30-year career, the one thing that really has not changed a lot is that people do not understand what their insurance provider gives them and what they don't," Eblen said. "People are very nervous when we talk about cost. It really does paralyze people, even when they do have some coverage."

Knopman encourages people to explore the boundaries of their employer's benefits package, paying special attention to the exclusions section. Some patients have successfully lobbied their human-resources departments to change company policies. Companies that partner with Progyny, Carrot or other third-party employer-sponsored fertility platforms can help patients understand cap amounts and specific treatment-plan costs in their coverage area.

Outside employer plans, Costco, Sesame and IVI RMA North America launched a partnership in March that can save Costco members up to 80 percent on fertility medications.

Bartelt advises approaching fertility costs like "any other goal you have with an unknown price tag" — preparing for a range of outcomes with variable costs so patients can pivot as they get new information. The emotional weight of family formation can make purely rational planning difficult, she said.

"There is definitely a limit to the usefulness of planning here," Bartelt said. "We do our best with what we know now, with what we can guess is a reasonable estimation of what will happen. Life is going to happen, and we're going to see how our plan survives contact with life."

Because coverage, medication prices and the proposed federal rule can change, patients should verify the latest details of their insurance plan and employer benefits against current official announcements before committing to a treatment budget.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.