Why IVF Medications Just Got Cheaper (and What That Changes)

For years, fertility medications were one of the biggest and least controllable costs in IVF—sometimes costing more than the procedure itself. Then, almost overnight, prices dropped by nearly 50%.

In this episode, Dr. Mark Amols explains what actually caused this dramatic shift, how government policy and pharmaceutical competition reshaped pricing, and why this change is already affecting IVF protocols. He breaks down what lower gonadotropin costs mean for patients, how this impacts the use of Menopur, and why low-dose hCG is now becoming a more cost-effective alternative for LH activity in many cycles.

If you’re preparing for IVF, freezing eggs, or struggling with medication costs, this episode will help you understand how these changes can affect your treatment, your budget, and your options.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of 'Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday' with Dr. Mark Amols. If you found this episode insightful, please share it with friends and family who might benefit from our discussion. Remember, your feedback is invaluable to us – leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred listening platform.

Stay connected with us for updates and fertility tips – follow us on Facebook. For more resources and information, visit our website at www.NewDirectionFertility.com.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us at TBFT@NewDirectionFertility.com.

Join us next Tuesday for more discussions on fertility, where we blend medical expertise with a touch of humor to make complex topics accessible and engaging. Until then, keep the conversation going and remember: understanding your fertility is a journey we're on together.

Transcript

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Today we talk about why fertility medications suddenly just got cheaper, what actually cost it, and how this change may actually change the way we stimulate your ovaries. I'm, Dr. Mark Amols, and this is Taco about Fertility Tuesday. If you're not familiar with our clinic, what's unique is we make fertility affordable. And what's interesting about that is the cost of medications are so expensive that at times it could actually cost more for the medications than it does for the IVF cycle. Now, that's not true at most places. In many places, IVF can be $15,000 or more. So$5,000, $6,000 in medication is only about 25% of the total cost. But for clinics that, let's say are more affordable, it can sometimes be half, if not even more than the cost. A great example of that is when you freeze eggs. Freezing eggs can sometimes be lower cost. But if, the meds still cost you $6,000, it's going to be tough. To give you an idea how expensive meds can be, I remember when I went through IVF with my wife back in 2008, every extra day that we went in stimulation was$500. I remember seeing my bank account dropping so fast every single day, and kept thinking, please, please, trigger we just don't have any more money. But then quietly overnight, those same medications just dropped by nearly 50%. And not because of some science has changed to make the meds cheaper, not because success rates changed as I had to lower the prices, but because a recent government agreement and this change in the price is going to not only change the cost of fertility, but it's even going to change possibly the way we practice fertility, especially ivf. See, when most people think of ivf, they think that IVF is the most expensive part. And again, that is somewhat true for a lot of places. But the medications have always been very expensive to the point where that many people can't go through. Matter of fact, there are some insurances that actually cover IVF but don't cover the medication, which doesn't help because, sure, even if IVF is free, if you have to spend $6,000 in medication, that doesn't help much. Prior to this recent change for 75 units of medication, it was close to about $80, and now it's down to about $40. Things like antagonists, which used to be around 50 to $55, are now down to$22. So basically, the medication costs were fixed. Didn't matter if you changed the clinic, you could even change Protocols. If you were using a high dose, it would cost a lot of money. Matter of fact, many patients would even do low cost protocols just to keep the cost down because the medications were so expensive and there was nothing you could do about the drug prices. It was basically untouchable. So what changed? They failed because of a policy decision. Whatever you think about Donald Trump, this is one true thing he can actually take some credit for. But let's not give him all the credit. His executive action towards making IVF more affordable was part of it. But it was actually an agreement he made with EMD Cyrano that manufactures meds like gold F that lower the cost. But here, where the real drop is significant, the competition is going to cause immediately Merck, which makes Falstem, had to respond and they did. They lowered their prices. And this competition is what's going to be great for us as fertility patients. Now, before you start going, oh man, they're so nice, why did they do this? Keep in mind the cost of these beds where this cost in other countries. Only in the United States did it cost as much for the medications. We truly subsidize all the other countries. And I'm not kidding, you can literally buy meds from other countries, the exact same brand for half the cost. And this doesn't make the other countries bad, it actually makes them good because they were able to get better deals and force these companies to sell at fair prices. And, finally now we have a government that pushed them to do the same. But there is a third company called Fering and Fairing makes a med called Menopure. And Menopur is a gonadotropin. It's actually called a menotropin because it comes from menopausal women. And they added HCG to it to give it LH like activity. To understand this, you have to understand that lh, the hormone, luteinizing hormone and HCG are very similar, their molecular structure. And so HCG actually mimics lh. We actually see this naturally. When you ovulate, your body makes LH to make progesterone. If you get pregnant, the baby then makes HCG to keep that corpus luteum, to keep making progesterone by mimicking M. Lh. So we are just doing the same thing that nature does. And so by adding HCG to the menopropins, you make menopur. And there is some data out there that it does benefit patients, especially patients who are poor responders or older or maybe had poor cycles in the past. But the Problem is no one really knew which patients needed it and which ones didn't. So everyone just got it. But here's the problem. They didn't lower their price like everybody else. So can we just get rid of Menopur? Well, not exactly, because again, there is benefit from that LH activity and unfortunately don't have some type of nomogram to figure it out on who needs it and who doesn't. Now some people started thinking, well, what if we maybe just added HCG to IVF cycles? Then you wouldn't have to buy Menopur. But the issue was if you were using 150 units of Menopur, that's 150 units of metotropins and LH activity. But if you just took HCG, then you have to make up that other 150 units, which meant you had to buy more follistim and more gold. And by the time you did that and added the cost of the acg, all of a sudden it wasn't actually cheaper. So minutepear just kind of stayed the default unless you were a good responder and just using ganache opens only. But that equation just changed on Friday, January 30 when the cost of ganacha opens dropped significantly again by 50%. But Metpeer didn't drop. Which means for the first time using pure FSH plus low dose hcg, giving the LH like activity will actually give a meaningful reduction in the cost of your medications. Because when you buy the extra 150 of the gonadotropins, you're not paying the menopur price now, you're paying the lower price. Now I'm a big proponent of of Manipur, but I've never liked how they charge so much and it's only been going up year after year. In all fairness, they don't have to compete with the gonadotropins because they do have something that's different. But now physicians, we may have the choice to start reducing the amount of menopause we use because we can now use HCG giving LH like activity and can make up the cost of the medications with the ganatropins at 50% the cost than it used to be with Menopur. Now, this does not mean Menopur is a bad drug. It's a very good one. As I mentioned, if you're a poor responder, an older patient, or you had, let's say prior cycles with a weak estrogen response, then yes, you need LH activity. The point here is if your insurance isn't covering the Menopur, this may be a very valid option. As I said personally, I never did it because it didn't save anyone money. But that is not true anymore. Now. Hm, I don't think everyone's just going to get rid of using Menopur again. It's a great drug. But I think what might start happening is if Menopur doesn't start dropping their prices. I can see a situation where many clinics start switching to using low dose hcg. Many were doing it before, but they weren't saving people money. But now there is no question what's going to happen. The cost of drugs will go down considerably. Using the HCG for your LH activity versus using Menopur. And again, I don't hate Menopur, I like it a lot. In fact, I hope they do lower their prices. And the only way they're going to do that is if all the doctors start going to HCG for LH activity. So I hope a lot of doctors like myself will start doing that. Because just like the cost of Follistim had to drop because of the competition against golf, potentially we could get the cost of Menopur to drop because of the competition against both Volstim and golf because we can now create the LH activity without using a drug that is twice the cost. Now, if you weren't aware that the cost of meds went down, now you are. So make sure, if you're buying your meds, make sure you're getting the lowest prices. There are some pharmacies that are not offering these prices, so you do want to check into this. The website Trump Rx was supposed to have this information, but unfortunately they really haven't done a good job at updating the website. But if you want to go to the website, which eventually I hope it will show where to go, you go to trumprx.gov hopefully this episode might have enlightened some people to the fact that there was a decrease in medications. Maybe you didn't know that and you were just about to buy your meds from somewhere else, make sure you get that huge discount. And maybe in the past you're someone who couldn't afford to go through even if maybe you had a low cost IVF cycle due to insurance, but they didn't cover the meds. Now you don't have to go to Mexico to get your medications because the medications are similar in price now. Now, keep in mind there are lower cost medications that are generics in other countries. But when we're talking about the brand name, we are now competitive with them. Matter of fact, when I went on to ivfmeds.com which has discounted medications in other countries that they ship to America, I could actually see the prices of the medications are actually lower cost here, such as Ganarlix. It's $55 there and now it's only 22 here in the state. A.300 international unit cartridge of Fallistim is 180 there and now it's 168 in the states. The point is we are finally on the same ground and now we get the discount. If you have someone who might be going through ivf, tell them about this episode so they know about this and they can save money. And you like this podcast, please tell a friend about it. Give us a five star review on your favorite medium. But most of all keep coming back. I look forward to talking again next week on Taco Belt for Toady Tuesday.