Family Planning & Fertility Treatments

There are some things you can do to increase your chances of getting pregnant naturally, such as:

• Avoid tobacco, nicotine and cannabis use  
• Limit or avoid alcohol intake
• Maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI)
• Plan intercourse around ovulation
• Take a daily prenatal vitamin that has folic acid
• Track your menstrual cycles and ovulation with a urine ovulation predictor kit or by taking your basal body temperature.

Bellin is proud to partner with many IVF clinics throughout the country for monitoring services to allow local patients to have their ultrasounds and blood work done quickly while in a stimulation or embryo transfer cycle. Bellin’s monitoring services are often referred to as satellite monitoring. This involves baseline ultrasounds, lining checks, saline ultrasounds and same-day hysterosalpingography (HSG) labs that are sent to your IVF clinic same day. Our monitoring services are offered seven days a week, and we will work with your IVF clinic to prescribe all medications, give all lab and ultrasound results and develop your IVF plan, including all follow-up appointments.  

We like to think of ourselves as the “middleman” between you and your IVF clinic. We can perform the monitoring and send over results, but we will not deliver results to you or give recommendations. A lot of local patients enjoy this opportunity because it allows you to stay near home while you go through the stimulation process. Additionally, monitoring services performed by Bellin can be discounted when you pay same day and do not bill to insurance.

Once you are established with an IVF clinic, you will most likely need to have baseline testing done, which includes blood work and some form of ultrasounds prior to beginning a stimulation or egg retrieval cycle. The stimulation cycle involves injectable medications, and you will need to be monitored at least every other day during this period, which can be anywhere between five days to two weeks on average. From there, you will go to your IVF clinic for egg retrieval and embryo transfer. We do not store embryos at our clinic.

The timeline to get started with IVF can vary based on each clinic location, so if you are interested in the possibility of IVF, we encourage you to schedule a new patient consult with the IVF clinic of your choosing to get established.

The cost of IVF can vary greatly for each patient and partner clinic. Average costs can range from $15,000 to $30,000 but can also fall outside of that range. We encourage you to call the IVF clinic you wish to work with directly to inquire more about their specific costs.   

We offer male-factor testing to established patients. Male-factor testing includes a formal semen analysis that is performed at Bellin Hospital. If additional testing is needed, we will refer you to our urology partner.

We offer intrauterine insemination (IUI) to our established patients. Our fertility team performs IUIs seven days a week to accommodate your ovulation.  

The IUI process takes about one and a half hours from processing to insemination and does involve sperm washing to allow for the best sample for insemination.

We do offer IUI with donor sperm, and we can store donor sperm in our cryogenic storage tank at our clinic.  

IUI is generally a more affordable option over in vitro fertilization  (IVF), and many times IUI is used as a fertility intervention prior to moving forward with IVF. 

At this time, Bellin does not have reproductive endocrinologists. However, all of our OB-GYN providers have received infertility training. Additionally, we can refer you to a reproductive endocrinologist at one of our partner IVF clinics.

At this time, Bellin does not offer tubal ligation reversal. If you are unable to have this procedure done, you will need IVF to conceive. 

If you haven’t conceived as quickly as you had hoped, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are infertile. More than 95 percent of couples that seek fertility treatments do not require IVF. Our fertility specialists work to find the cause of your problems and address them right away. Meeting with our team will provide you with an individualized care plan that aims to successfully help you start or grow your family.  

Contact one of our fertility specialists if you:  

• Are younger than 35 and haven’t conceived after a year of unprotected intercourse or are older than 35 and haven’t conceived after six months of unprotected intercourse  
• Experience pelvic pain or pain during intercourse  
• Have a history of sexually transmitted disease (STD) or pelvic inflammatory infection (PID)  
• Have a chronic medical condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure  
• Have a history of chemotherapy or radiation therapy
• Have irregular, absent or painful periods  
• Have had two or more miscarriages