Having been in the mortgage industry that past 20 years I’m never really amazed when I see some new gimmick offered that sounds too good to be true.
After talking a customer off the gimmick ledge today (a bank offering cash back if my client got a mortgage through the bank–yeah–I don’t think so) I got to thinking about the ‘gimmicky’ experiences we had in infertility.
We had an experience with a clinic that claimed nearly 80% success rates if you just committed to some new blood infusion treatment.
The doc/screener in this case took information over the phone, and some basic details about the outcome of the cycles we had done, and gave us a treatment regimen over the phone.
Without even seeing a medical chart, he was already telling us how to pay for the treatments and how many we’d need.
At that point we’d failed two IVFS, and Lisa was desperate.
The guy was confident and smooth on the phone and his science seemed to make some sense.
It was the reaction of our RE that gave me pause.
He explained that this guy’s science had not been accepted by other reproductive endocrinologists and his success rates were not yet posted on the SARTs, so there was no real way to verify the the accuracy of his figures.
But the guy was persistent.
It was incredibly enticing.
And incredibly expensive. At $2000/per infusion, with 5 recommended for maximum effect, we would be out of pocket $10,000 to go from success rates in the 30% range to 80%.
It just sounded too good to be true.
After doing more research and getting feedback from our RE and other infertility professionals, we decided against it.
Maybe the treatment was legitimate, but the success rates just sounded too good to be true.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, if it sounds too good to be true, it’s better to pass and avoid being the victim of a gimmick.
You have brought back a flood of memories for me. I remember those promises or at least promises I thought I heard of being Pregnant with a year of treatment. How it was much more of a guarantee than adoption because a Birth Mother could always change her mind. I am so happy with the route to building our family that we decided on as we would not have our special dancer who brings joy to our hearts.