U.S. women crossing globe for fertility help

There’s also the question of safety.

Dr. John Frattarelli, a reproductive endocrinologist, obstetrician and gynecologist at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, says he’s treated two patients who’ve suffered mild ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) as a result of overseas IVF. However, he notes, “That is not a knock on the provider performing the services. It’s a complication that any of us get.”

The problem, he says, is that OHSS can increase the risk of blood clots, commonly in the legs — already a concern for anyone on a long airplane flight. Symptoms can also include fluid in the abdomen or lungs, a dangerous situation if a woman is in a country where she can’t get adequate health care.

For women like Fran who are seeking an egg donor, Frattarelli calls out another potential issue: the adequacy of donor screening for genetic and other issues. “In the U.S., donors are screened very thoroughly,” he says. “Other countries don’t necessarily have that.”

Do your homework
He advises women to do their homework when considering a clinic abroad. “Look at the credentials of the hospital,” he says.

After researching online the staff of the Zlin clinic and corresponding with several American women who’d been there, Fran decided to sign up for a trip to the Czech Republic. Next, it came time to pick her donor.

According to Marcela Fite, one of the co-proprietors behind ivfvacation.com, many donors at the Zlin clinic are college-educated (Zlin is a university town), and, at a minimum, must have completed high school. According to the clinic, donors undergo genetic and STD screening and receive no more than $715, for travel expenses and discomfort associated with ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval. (Legally, donors in the Czech Republic cannot be compensated for the actual eggs produced. According to the Czech Statistics Office, the average monthly wage in the Czech Republic is about $970.)

For Fran and her husband, the most important criteria was that their donor be healthy and have healthy children of her own or have produced a pregnancy through donation. Following that, says Fran, she wanted her donor to be under 30, have hair color and eye color similar to hers and have a college degree.

Inside of a week, she says, “We got it all.”

Interactive Baby-making by the numbers: Stats on women in the workplace, the rate of assisted reproduction, numbers of twins and triplets, and much more.

In April, Fran and her husband traveled to the Czech Republic. Two weeks and about $12,500 later — including the cost of donor eggs, drugs and procedures, as well as airfare, transportation, food and accommodation for two — she’d been implanted with three embryos. (According to ivfvacation.com, couples using donor eggs can usually expect to pay about $7,300, excluding airfare; women using their own eggs typically pay $5,700.)

Finally, two weeks later, Fran learned she was pregnant. She's due in January.

Helpful links: The American Fertility Association WorldFAM (includes a list of patient advocacy organizations) American Society for Reproductive Medicine Resolve: The National Infertility Association Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (includes links for locating clinics in the U.S. and viewing U.S. clinic success rates)

Anderson's trip was less fruitful. The procedure in Cape Town didn’t produce a pregnancy.

No regrets
After returning home, Anderson decided to give up on using her own eggs, and ultimately conceived her twin daughters, now a year old, using donated frozen embryos. (The frozen embryo transfer, which doesn’t require ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval, cost $4,555.) Nonetheless, Anderson says she doesn’t regret going to South Africa.

“It was an incredible experience,” she says. “You have this nice pleasantness of a vacation wrapped around this very stressful situation. And you get to do it a little more privately, instead of being surrounded by co-workers and friends, pretending it’s your everyday life — and during an IVF cycle, it never is.”

Fran agrees. “IVF treatment is so stressful. You become so focused on it: When’s your next appointment? What day is it in your cycle? Being overseas really gave us the opportunity to have hours and hours not to think about it. We were renting the car, trying to read the road signs, meeting new people, seeing places ... there was so much time we were just tourists.”

“We had a vacation,” she adds. “Aside from everything else.”

M. Susan Wilson is a Seattle-based freelance writer and editor.

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