# Fertility treament and octuplets

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fertility-treament-and-octuplets/483712>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 30, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fertility-treament-and-octuplets/483712 "2009-01-30T14:42:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fertility-treament-and-octuplets/483712/21 "2009-01-31T07:06:51Z")

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> [@OldGuy](#):
>
> What I want to know is who is paying for this. This treatment is expensive. Based on the news stories she and her parents are not wealthy, and there is no husband/father around. Since she has 6 children, it doesn’t seem she’s infertile, so I don’t think insurance would pay.

Even if she were infertile, insurance may not pay. I have pretty good health insurance, but infertility is not covered. So far its cost me about $40,000 out of pocket.

Ed

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**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fertility-treament-and-octuplets/483712/22 "2009-01-31T13:10:50Z")

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Also, it is difficult to judge the ‘quality’ of an embryo. There is genetic testing for things like cystic fibrosis available, but no ‘test’ to tell if an embyo is healthy and likely to implant. I spoke with an embryologist once years ago who told me "You ask yourself things like “Are all the cell parts present? Is this normal appearing cytoplasm?” I’m sure there have been advances in the field since then, however.

Usually, these kinds of high order multiples are not IVF pregnancies, but poorly supervised intrauterine inseminations or even natural conceptions where the female has overproduced eggs following follicle stimulating drug therapy.

I was **very** surprised to read this was an IVF pregnancy. Most reproductive endocrinologists would not implant so many embryos unless they were really crappy looking and the chance of success was very small. The RE’s I knew talked about how if they didn’t regulate themselves, the government would , and they did not want that.

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