IVF Denied Under OMS, Paid 500k: Tyumen Women's Stories

In the Tyumen region in 2024, over 1600 IVF procedures were performed — as a result, 428 children were born. The procedure is covered by OMS (Compulsory Health Insurance), but you only get two attempts per year — for additional ones, you have to pay a significant amount.

We asked women from Tyumen to share how they went through IVF, how many attempts they needed to get pregnant, and whether this path was difficult for them and their husbands. We are publishing several candid stories.

We changed the names of the heroines in the material at their request.

“We Waited in Line for Six Months”

Yekaterina, Gave Birth to Twins

We experienced reproductive difficulties for seven years. We underwent treatment for a long time, figured things out. In the end, after one operation, the gynecologist from the women’s clinic referred us to a reproductive specialist.

She examined me and my husband for three months and put us in the queue for free IVF. We waited in the queue for about six months, even though there are about three hundred people in it. Then we chose a center to perform the procedure.

Later, they called us from there and invited us to start the protocol. Hormonal medications are given every three days; you can administer them yourself or come to the hospital to have them administered. The amounts prescribed are staggering — a three-day course could cost around 40,000 rubles (approximately $400 at current rates), and you need at least ten days. But under the quota, everything is free.

In the hospital, the room was excellent, I liked everything very much. The doctors around us were very polite and attentive. Every three days, they performed an ultrasound, monitored the growth of the follicles, and then scheduled the date for the puncture.

After five days, we had the embryo transfer, performed by the same doctor who had been monitoring me the whole time.

All of this was free. The only paid appointment was afterwards, when I came for a check-up — to confirm that the pregnancy had occurred. At that point, the protocol is considered closed, so paid services begin. This appointment cost about 5,000 rubles (approximately $50 at current rates). In the end, I gave birth to beautiful, healthy twin girls.

“The Most Painful Thing Is When It Doesn’t Work”

Alisa, Two Attempts

We couldn’t have children for five years, and in 2020 I decided to undergo IVF. My husband supported me, and we went to one of the city clinics that deals with reproductive health.

First, there is preparation — you need to stimulate hyperovulation to get as many oocytes (female germ cells, precursors to eggs — Ed.) as possible, and consequently, embryos. Then they are ‘cultured’ and they see how many of them can be implanted later. For example, they retrieved 11 oocytes from me, then seven embryos were formed, and only four of them could be implanted.

Oocytes are retrieved under anesthesia, so the procedure is painless. The IVF itself also doesn’t cause discomfort, though it takes time. Usually, after obtaining the embryos, implantation occurs within a few days, and if everything is successful, you can get pregnant.

You need to wait two to three weeks: if it fails, then after a couple of months, they give you another attempt. When all the ‘sticks’ are used up, you need to stimulate again, and so on in a cycle. And this is psychologically difficult when it doesn’t work the first time. This is the ‘most painful’ part.

After an unsuccessful attempt, we were prescribed many tests to understand what was wrong. Before the second attempt, the clinic told me that I needed to ‘prepare the ground’. My endometrium was not ready, and I treated it at my own expense.

Finally, with the second attempt, it worked! The clinic charged us 100,000 rubles (approximately $1,000 at current rates), but I later wrote to the insurance company, they investigated everything and returned most of the money.

And by the way, after those births, our third child came easily!

“There Were Five Women with Me. Some Were on Their Fourth Time”

Yevgenia, One Attempt

My husband and I had double infertility, and we went for IVF. For two months, there was hormonal and vitamin preparation. Before making an attempt, the doctor ensures that all your hormones, uterus, and ovaries are in order.

I also needed two surgeries — laparoscopy and hysteroscopy. Perhaps this influenced the success of the IVF. The procedure itself is very quick; after it, you lie in the room for 30 minutes without a phone, and then you go home. You take various medications, give HCG injections, and wait for the result. We succeeded on the first try.

For me, the procedure turned out to be paid; we paid 500,000 rubles (approximately $5,000 at current rates) at that time. They explained that I have low AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone — a marker showing the number of remaining follicles with eggs in the ovaries — Ed.), and therefore I was denied the free service.

In the room with me, there were five other women undergoing IVF. Some were on their fourth time.

Sometimes couples facing conception difficulties resort to surrogacy and risk being deceived. Such a case happened with a resident of Simferopol, who turned to a surrogate mother from Tyumen.

They transferred over 340,000 rubles (approximately $3,400 at current rates) to the girl for the preparatory stage. She received money to pay for medical tests and other expenses and even sent receipts, which later turned out to be fake. We tell the details of the story here.