My IVF Cost and Its Procedure

Are you seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and wondering how much IVF cost in Malaysia?

Read on. Because I will be sharing the IVF cost I paid for my IVF treatment back in 2015 at an IVF centre locally in Malaysia.

First and foremost, this post involves quite some infertility jargon and acronyms. If you are not familiar with these terms, you can always check them on the Baby Center website to clear your doubt.

Aside from the IVF cost, I will also share the basic part of all procedures involved in my IVF treatment.

Table of Contents

• The starting point of my infertility journey
• Trying traditional Chinese medicine
• Fertility treatments at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH)
• Planning for IVF treatment
• Preparing financially for IVF cost
• Deciding for IVF treatment
• Our first visit to the IVF centre
• My IVF cost quotation
• Starting my IVF treatment
  • The egg retrieval procedure
  • The embryo transfer procedure
  • The tough two-week-wait
• A failed IVF
• My Actual IVF cost
• Planning for second IVF treatment
  • Supplements to enhance our bodies for conception
• A miracle from the failed IVF
• Final thoughts

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

The starting point of my infertility journey

In my earlier post, I wrote about how my husband and I save costs on infertility treatments.

It was an emotional, tough and expensive journey of about 6 years.

When the first fertility specialist we visited back in 2010 told us that the only way for us to have our baby is through IVF, my husband and I was speechless. We were also shocked, can’t accept it and had a thousand questions in our minds.

We were thinking why were we so unlucky? Why us?

We took good care of our health and we both always practised healthy habits.

At the end of the visit, the fertility specialist suggested we go to Singapore for IVF. He even offered to arrange an appointment with the Singapore IVF centre.

We thanked him for the offer but we told him that we were not ready for the IVF and we needed some time to consider.

Trying traditional Chinese medicine

It was a hard fact. After feeling down for a few days, we bitterly accepted the fact that we need help to realize our dream to have our own baby.

But, we were not willing to go for IVF just yet. At that time I was 33 years old.

So, we started planning and trying many other alternatives.

The first thing we did were consult and take traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) at a local TCM centre. We hope to be able to improve our body condition so that I can get pregnant naturally.

After diligently taking the TCM herbs for about 4 months, both of our body conditions improved. But, there’s still no good news. A few months later, we started seeking other local TCM centres in Kuching. And consuming more TCM herbs.

After some time, we also took a TCM course by one of the famous sinseh based in Penang. The TCM course lasted for about 15 months. Still, I haven’t gotten pregnant.

When a kind lady who works at a laboratory told my husband that we can actually get advanced infertility treatment offered by Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) at a subsidized cost, we immediately took action.

Fertility treatments at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH)

The process of enrolling for fertility treatment at SGH was not easy. It was a slow, long and tedious process.

After a few months, we managed to get an appointment at the SGH Specialist Clinic.

Long story short, among the fertility treatment we went through at SGH Obstetrics & Gynecology Specialist Clinic (Klinik Pakar Obstetrik & Ginekologi) were as below:

• multiple ‘natural clomit treatment’
• multiple ‘timed clomit treatment’
• twice Intrauterine insemination (IUI) treatment

Despite trying many different methods and with multiple treatments, there’s no positive result from all the treatments we received at SGH.

Luckily, SGH subsidized most of the treatment cost.

Else, we could have spent thousands of ringgits on these treatments.

Planning for IVF treatment

From the day the first fertility specialist told us that the only way for us to have our baby is using IVF technology, I had prepared myself for the IVF treatment.

At that moment, all we know was IVF is a test-tube baby.

To be honest, it never crosses my mind that I will have to go through an IVF myself. All I was thinking was to get married and immediately get pregnant.

Thinking back, that was so naive.

From then on, knowing that the possibility to get pregnant naturally is relatively small, I told myself that I must be ready for IVF treatment.

While the clock is ticking and days pass by, I can feel I get more and more anxious.

Mainly because there is a direct impact of a woman’s age on female fertility.

The pregnancy rate for women aged above 35 years old dropped significantly compared to women below 35 years old. And a woman’s age heavily affects the IVF success rate too.

With that knowledge, I did extensive research on infertility treatment. Especially on IVF treatments, after 3 years of unsuccessful infertility treatments.

I spent a lot of time reading forums, personal blogs, articles, books and everything I can find on IVF.

Preparing financially for IVF cost

At the same time, my husband and I also get ready financially.

Since I had prepared myself for IVF treatment, I also started my financial preparation for IVF from the very beginning. Among them is saving a portion of my monthly salary and putting aside money from the year-end performance bonus.

One thing about IVF is, it is expensive. Generally, the IVF cost in Malaysia ranges from RM15,000 to RM20,000 for one cycle. It requires high technology, expertise, and expensive drugs and is a tough procedure too.

Yet, it does not assure success with one shot.

Thus, I had to prepare a bigger budget to cater for multiple IVF treatments.

Because of my extensive research, the percentage of a successful pregnancy with one IVF cycle is rather low.

On average, most couples get a positive result after 4 or 5 attempts.

Deciding for IVF treatment

It was March 2014. The news of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 affected me strongly for a few months.

As the news emerged now and then, I felt like I was getting more and more ready for the IVF treatment.

Then in July 2014, another Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 incident made me feel like life is too fragile. I strongly feel that I can’t delay any further IVF treatment. Because I don’t know what lies ahead.

I decided that, while I still can, I must do things I need to do. Including giving myself a chance to try out IVF treatment, to realize our dream to have our own baby.

Our first visit to the IVF centre

In October 2014, my husband and I made our first visit to a local IVF centre in Kuching, London Fertility Center. Back then, London Fertility Center is the only fertility clinic in Kuching.

Both of us were quite nervous and had a mixture of all kinds of feelings: hopeful, excited, scared, worried, curious, ashamed and a bunch of other feelings.

The fertility specialist, Dr Chieng is very expert in what he is doing. He gave us a detailed and lengthy sharing of infertility treatment options including IVF.

At the end of the first appointment, he ordered a detailed fertility assessment for both of us.

That first consultation cost was RM380 including hormone tests for both of us, sperm tests and transvaginal scans.

It also covers the second consultation charge which includes reviewing the hormone test and sperm test report and deciding on the best option to have a baby of our own.

Personally, I think the first consultation charge of RM380 is very reasonable.

My IVF cost quotation

Based on the consultation and recommendation by the fertility specialist, we decided to go for IVF with ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection). This is where a single sperm is injected directly into an ovum.

The reason is that ICSI has the highest chance of success rate.

Based on my age and my overall health, he quoted us RM13,000 for one cycle.

And he told us we might need to fork out more money as the RM13,000 is the standard package.

The reason behind this is that it depends very much on the amount of drug needed for a patient’s egg stimulation.

For those who reacted very well, only a small amount of drug is needed. In which, the cost can be lower than RM13,000. On the other hand, for patients who need more drugs for egg stimulation, the cost can be much higher than RM13,000.

All these will be revealed by monitoring the egg’s size throughout the egg stimulation process.

From my research, the average IVF cost in Malaysia ranges from RM8,000 to RM25,000, depending on the couples’ health conditions and the fertility clinic. So, the RM13,000 is within my expectation. And I am also ready for an additional amount as it depends on my body’s reaction during the egg stimulation.

Thus, it will be wise to get ready a bigger budget for an IVF cycle.

Starting my IVF treatment

In December 2014, we started our IVF treatment journey.

The fertility specialist ordered me on a course of birth control pills. Not to provide contraception but to reset my menstrual cycle.

In January 2015, I started my daily hormone injection at the fertility centre. For me, the daily jab was not too painful.

Perhaps the fertility assistant is already an expert in giving jabs to her IVF patients. Still, there were some light bruises on my abdomen from the daily jabs.

I read from the forum that in other fertility centres in West Malaysia, IVF patients need to inject the daily jab themselves. Or, they can get their husband or close family member to do the injection.

Some of them even go to their own general practitioner clinic and pay the clinic for every injection.

Along with the daily injection, once in two or three days, the fertility specialist did a transvaginal scan.

The purpose is to check the growth of my eggs or ovum size.

From the scanning, the growth of my eggs was not really good. So, the specialist increased the volume of the hormone to further stimulate my eggs.

With the additional dose of hormone, it meant my IVF cost will increase too. As the fertility specialist had informed us earlier, we were ready for it.

Luckily after a few days of daily jabs with a higher volume of medication, some eggs were growing well.

The egg retrieval procedure

Before the egg retrieval or some called it egg collection, besides the daily injection, they also gave me additional injections at a specific time to trigger ovulation.

So that, they can harvest or collect these matured eggs for fertilization with hubby’s sperm.

On the day of egg retrieval, I was on anaesthesia. The procedure left me feeling bloated.

I also feel pain in my abdomen after the effect of anaesthesia was gone.

The good news was the fertility team managed to retrieve some good-quality eggs for fertilization.

The embryo transfer procedure

Two days after the egg retrieval, I went back to the fertility specialist clinic for the embryo transfer procedure.

In this round, no anaesthesia was involved.

It was slightly uncomfortable when the fertility specialist placed the embryos in my uterus.

The procedure was fast.

Once completed, they gave me vaginal progesterone suppositories to help to support pregnancy.

The tough two-week-wait

If you asked me what is the toughest part of the whole IVF procedure, I would say it is the two-week wait.

Especially the home pregnancy test part towards the end of the two-week wait.

I still remember, my hands were trembling when I was putting the first urine (the urine when waking up in the morning which has the highest level of pregnancy hormone) drop on the home pregnancy test kit.

A failed IVF

When I saw only one line during my first home pregnancy test done after the tough two-week wait, I was very sad. And disappointed too.

The specialist assistant told me to perform another home pregnancy test after 2 days if my menses haven’t come.

So, I did another home pregnancy test after 2 days. But, I still only see one line which means negative pregnancy.

When I informed the specialist assistant, she told me to stop all medication and wait for my menses.

To tell the truth, I was extremely sad. Hubby was very sad too.

Even though we know the chances for a positive pregnancy with the first IVF are low, we were still hopeful.

My Actual IVF cost

Due to the changes in my hormone injection volume, my IVF cost increased from RM13,000 to RM16,000.

That is an additional RM3,000 for the additional volume of hormone injections to boost my egg growth.

This IVF cost of RM16,000 inclusive of all the procedures below:

• contraceptive pills for resetting my menstrual cycle
• hormone injections to stimulate more eggs and boost eggs growth
• transvaginal scanning and monitoring procedure throughout the IVF cycle
• egg retrieval procedure
• fertilization of the eggs and sperm in the laboratory using ICSI technology
• embryo transfer procedure
• vaginal suppositories pills after the embryo transfer procedure
• all consultations throughout the whole IVF procedure

Personally, I think the IVF cost of RM16,000 in Malaysia is still reasonable. Even though considered quite expensive for many of us, it is still affordable.

I believe couples who really yearn for their own babies are willing to spend RM16,000 or more to have their dream come true.

Planning for second IVF treatment

After the failed IVF treatment, temporarily hubby and I took a break from all infertility treatment.

After a few months, we started planning for a second IVF treatment.

But, for the second IVF treatment, I promised myself that I must enhance my body and my hubby’s body to improve the chances of a positive pregnancy.

So, we took some good-quality supplements before the second IVF treatment.

Upon sharing this post back in January 2019, I received quite many enquiries on the actual supplement that we consumed to enhance our bodies.

I share the details below.

Supplements to enhance our bodies for conception

As requested by some readers, here are some of the supplements that we took between March to August 2015, preparing our bodies as we planned for the second IVF treatment.

1. Fresh Royal Jelly from Eu Yan Sang (for both me and my husband)

On how to consume the royal jelly, I followed the instruction provided by the sales personnel at Eu Yan Sang (Jalan Song Thian Cheok, Kuching) and also the instruction on the packaging.

For me, I took one teaspoon under the tongue after breakfast and one teaspoon before bedtime. For my hubby was one teaspoon before bedtime only.

Anyone interested to buy the fresh royal jelly may get further details (or call) the nearest Eu Yan Sang for availability. Do take note, some of us might be allergic to bee products including royal jelly.

2. Coenzyme Q10 ubiquinol (for me)

For coenzyme Q10 ubiquinol, I took one softgel once a day after lunch. I remember it was quite hard for me to find coenzyme Q10 ubiquinol in Kuching back in 2015.

Nowadays, you can easily buy Coenzyme Q10 ubiquinol from Shopee. The price is also much cheaper when you buy online.

3. Chlorella (for me)

For Chlorella from Abeille D’OR Bio Chlorella, I took 5 tablets once a day before lunch. You can find the Chlorella from Shopee too.

4. Folic Acid (for both me and my husband)

As for folic acid (the usual 10 tablets for 1 film at RM1 from the pharmacy) both my husband and I took one tablet once a day in the morning.

5. Vitamin C (for me)

For vitamin C from Dyna, I took 1 tablet 500mg once a day in the morning. The Dyna Vitamin C is also available from Shopee.

We took the above supplement for about 6 months. We also incorporate more nutritious food to enhance fertility such as:

• Organic virgin coconut oil
• Fresh avocado
• Salmon fish

And for the supplement listed above, do take note to ask and read the prescription carefully before consumption. Because one of my friends who took the fresh royal jelly had swollen lips. And later she found out that she was allergic to bee products.

If you need further details on the supplements, feel free to drop your comment below or send me an email. I shall try my best to help.

A miracle from the failed IVF

Just when we were about to be ready for the second IVF treatment, I found out that I got pregnant naturally. About 9 months later, I gave birth to my son. You can read my sharing in another post, The cost of giving birth at Sarawak General Hospital.

My hubby and I were both thrilled with this miracle. We were grateful to God for this miracle. Even now, when I look at my son, it still reminds me of this miracle.

Perhaps the supplement did help to rejuvenate our bodies for natural conception.

Or maybe the medication from the IVF procedure did some magic to my body.

No matter what, we feel like every cent we spent on all the infertility treatments including the IVF procedure is worth it.

Final thoughts

Currently, the IVF cost for one cycle in Malaysia can be quite high.

Add on the possibility to have multiple IVF cycles with no guarantee of a positive pregnancy, and the total amount spent can be even higher.

Just for sharing, I have a friend who had been through multiple IVF treatments in Malaysia with a total IVF cost of more than RM100,000.

She finally has a positive result and is blessed with a set of healthy triplets.

But, I believe not many of us in Malaysia can afford such a huge IVF cost.

For those planning for IVF treatment, I hope this article on my IVF cost and its procedure can give you some guidelines on the financial part. And also what to expect throughout the whole procedure.

Bear in mind, the IVF cost I shared here might vary with other specialist centres throughout Malaysia.

So, do proper research and equip yourself with as much information as possible.

Not forgetting to have a budget planned for IVF treatment and get ready financially as early as possible.

Also, try to rejuvenate your body with good nutrition and the right supplements for a higher chance of a positive result.

Finally, pray according to your faith because there is a special power in prayer.

Read more: The cost of having a baby in Malaysia