Egg Freezing

After a few years of hemming and hawing, I may be moving forward with egg freezing. At least just the 1st consultation. I have scheduled this 1st consultation at least twice with other clinics but always cancelled in the past. They don't make it very easy as the price tag for just the initial consult is already hundreds of dollars. Then right after the consult, you have to take diagnostic tests (blood work) that may or may not be covered by your insurance. For me, it's not.

Before I decided to go with Kindbody, I did a lot of research online and compiled a comparison of some esteemed fertility clinics in the SF Bay Area and added the important factors I wanted to evaluate for each:

Attribute	Ave of all SART Members	Nova IVF	CCRM	RMA	UCSF	RSC	Kindbody
Cost
Consultation		525	450	400	125	290	300
Other Fees		1155	1509.2	1300	1632	1000	2459
Procedure		10900	9780	8000	7859	9000	6500
Procedure_2		8700	8313	8000	6288	9000	5500
Medication		5000	5500	6000	5000	5000	5500
Medication_2		5000	5500	6000	5000	5000	5500
Storage, Annual		600	600	600	232	600	600
Total		31880	31652.2	30300	26136	29890	26359
Location		Mountain View	Menlo Park	SF or E.PA	SF	Foster City	SF
Clinic Rating (FertilityIQ)		9.3	9.7	9.9	8.6	8.7	10
# of Ratings (FertilityIQ)		20	15	22	127	123	1
SART Total Number of Cycles (2018)	271398	555	too new	too new	2950	2496	too new
SART # of Oocyte Banking Cycles converted from fertility preservation		0			1	1
SART 2018 Success Rate for 35-37, Singleton Births	26.2%	22.6%			25.2%	40.9%
SART 2018 Success Rate for 38-40, Singleton Births	17.7%	24.4%			15.5%	26.4%
SART 2018 Success Rate for 35-37, subsequent cycle	41.0%	36.4%			41.0%	54.2%
SART 2018 Success Rate for 38-40, subsequent cycle	37.9%	22.2%			47.8%	46.5%

I wanted to go with either UCSF or Kindbody because they cost the least but are still considered good clinics. I actually reviewed other clinics not on this list but left them out because their clinic rating was <8.5.

Cost was probably the most important factor because my current insurance will not cover any of this - consultation fees, diagnostic tests, medicine, or the procedure. I really envy those who work at the tech companies who get all of this covered by their employer's insurance policy. I don't want to be paying $30,000 when someone else gets it for free!? I even went so far as researching Starbucks' fertility benefits and applied to be a part-time barista at age 35. Part-time Starbucks employees get full benefits including fertility benefits. I worked there for 4 years in high school and college! Two months after I applied this year, I haven't been called for any interview. *shrug* Ageism. I would call an experienced person in and pay them $11/hour. Who else would want that job for such LITTLE pay? It's unbelievable that ~20 years later the pay is basically the SAME. This country... I digress.

I have a little experience with UCSF since I was about to donate my eggs a few years back but then hit the donation age cutoff and had to decide between already-booked travel to a malaria/Zika prone country or donate. I decided to travel. Anyway, UCSF has a lot of experience, their program was organized, and the facilities were decent.

I ended up choosing Kindbody because they are more tech-friendly and seem to understand the desires of their patients more. I think I will be able to find information more easily with Kindbody since it's all centralized in a patient portal. The risk with Kindbody is that they aren't proven. They've only been around since 2018. The SF clinic opened in mid-2019. I know their doctors have way more experience though.

Kindbody is so new that there aren't any SART success metrics. SART is the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, a non-profit that provides success rates for clinics. The success rates are not audited by an independent body. They are self-reported by clinics. Also, SART says "The data presented in this report should not be used for comparing clinics. Clinics may have differences in patient selection and treatment approaches which may artificially inflate or lower pregnancy rates relative to another clinic. Please discuss this with your doctor." So read those ratings, but don't make judgement calls on them.

One last note... what pushed me this year to start this process is because I got my hormone levels measured with Modern Fertility. They have a take-home kit where you prick your finger and ship some blood into a lab. The most important hormone for measuring a woman's fertility and her ovarian reserve is anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH). A study concluded that AMH is an even better predictor of menopause than a woman's mother's age at menopause. My AMH result was extremely low (0.22 ng/mL), below the reference range for my age. So low that it gave the Modern Fertility doctor pause, and they asked me to retake it to confirm the result. My second result was 0.49 ng/mL, which is still low but within the reference range (0.36 - 10.07 ng/mL). Either way you read it, it's low for my age. Additionally I found out this year that my mom hit menopause at age 36 - super young! So the combination of that information and given my age of 35, I needed to act if there was ANYTHING in me that maybe one day wants a child.