Nora Pashayan from the Institute of Public Health in Cambridge, UK, collaborated with colleagues to build a mathematical model that evaluates the cost-effectiveness of IVF and that of IUI, followed by IVF if IUI fails. They evaluated the cost of treatment for 100 simulated couples with unexplained infertility and mild male factor subfertility.
Pashayan et al.'s results show that, as IVF is more efficient and more likely to result in pregnancy after the first trial, offering IVF first is more cost-effective than offering IUI alone, or than offering IUI followed by IVF if IUI fails. The amount of money saved if IVF were offered first instead of unstimulated IUI, the least expensive of IUI treatments, would amount to £174,200. This amount of money could pay for IVF treatments for an additional 54 couples.
Article:
Cost-effectiveness of primary offer of IVF vs. primary offer of IUI followed by IVF (for IUI failures) in couples with unexplained or mild male factor subfertility
Nora Pashayan, Georgios Lyratzopoulos and Raj Mathur
BMC Health Services Research 2006, in press
Journal
BMC Health Services Research