IVF Cost at Centro Fecundar Costa Rica (Insemination & GIFT) / Panamá (IVF & ICSI)
After a recommendation from one of my readers (thank you Maureen) I sent my letter to the Centro Fecundar in Panama requesting the IVF cost, IVF success rates and IVF procedure. It turns out that the Centro Fecundar has a clinic based in Panama for IVF and ICSI, and another in Costa Rica which specialises in insemination and GIFT.
I received a quick response, which seemed promising, from the doctor whilst on the move, and a promise of a more details response later. Here is the first response:
Dear sue
You can review our information in our website www.centrofecundar.com
The majorities of question you will have the answer making click in in vitro Panama on our main page.
I will answer your question as soon I have time to do it
Best regards
Dr. Ariel Perez.
Unfortunately the follow up reply was not as thorough as I had expected:
Dear Sue
At 44 years old you are candidate to egg donors, because the energy of your own eggs (mithocondrias) are to old to get pregnant, success rate under 20%, if your want to perform it with us please let me know to send you our egg donor file (success rate with egg donor is 65%).
Best Regards
Dr. Ariel Pérez
Centro Fecundar Costa Rica (Insemination & GIFT)
Hospital CIMA San José, Consultorios 417- 419
Telefonos: (506) 2208-8417; (506) 2208-8419
San José,Costa Rica.
Centro Fecundar Panamá (IVF & ICSI)
Centro Médico Paitilla, Oficinas 517-518-519
Ciudad de Panamá, Rep. de Panamá.
Rather disappointing I thought, but at least the web site did contain some IVF cost information for IVF success rates:
|
Percentage of Pregnancies per Attempt in 2008
|
Up to 35
years old |
36 to 40 years old
|
Over 40 |
| Male Factor |
70%
|
51%
|
40%
|
| Tube Factor |
57%
|
46%
|
35%
|
| Endometriosis |
50%
|
42%
|
33%
|
| Anovulation (Polycystic ovaries) |
70%
|
56%
|
42%
|
| Immunological Factor |
54%
|
43%
|
30%
|
| Unexplainable Infertility |
75%
|
54%
|
43%
|
PRICING COSTS
- $1850 (lab) + $600 (medics) = $2450
Techniques such as day 3 Embryo Hatching, Embryo Glue, Blastocyst, and Cytoplasmic Transfer are all a part of our standard service at no additional cost.
SPECIAL SERVICES (should they be required):
- Embryo freezing $500 (includes all embryos obtained).
- Transfer of frozen embryos $1000
- Ovum donor $2500 (includes medication for the donor).
- Sperm donor $150.
- Epididymal and Testicular aspiration $600 (includes anesthesiologist).
Hi All,
I’ve been trying to get in touch with Dr Perez. I had an initial email in response to mine and was so excited. I really thought I’d found the place and since then I’ve sent about 3 emails and even called the clinic and left a voice mail. I was hoping to get a confirmation of the total costs for ivf with donor eggs. The figures he supplied for this website don’t match what is on the clinic website and the clinic website is in Spanish. So i wanted a firm idea of the costs directly and not through a 3rd party. Its such a disappointment I’ve no idea why Dr Perez has not replied. Anybody know another way to get in touch?
Good Luck with your IVF journey Sue. You are in my prayers afetr all you have done for us with your wonderful site I wish you all things wonderful!
M1tsouko
Hi M1tsouko,
The website for this clinic can be translated into English via a button on the top left had side. The figures above were taken straight off the website at the following page:
http://www.centrofecundar.com/english/invitro.asp
perhaps the Spanish version is saying something different!
The only contact information I have is above and from their web site:
Contact Information:
* Torre CIMA 3, consultorios 417-419, L a V 9am a 8pm. San José, Costa Rica.
* Teléfono para citas: (506) 2255-2555
* Celular: (506) 8818-8892
* Correo electrónico: centrofecundar@hotmail.com
I hope you manage to get a reply from them.
Thank you very much for your prayers we really appreciate it.
All the very best to you,
Sue
Hi
has anyone ever gone to Panama or Costa Rica for IVF from Canada or USA?
We are really considering it and would like some info.
My wife and I will be using Dr. Perez on May 1, and we will be going with 2 other couples. May 1 – 12 in Costa Rica for monitoring, and May 12 -18 in Panama for aspiration, etc.
I have been to both facilities, met Dr. Perez, and I talk to him several times per week. Please read my blog post at http://passportmedical.com/2010/01/the-cheapest-ivf-in-the-world-it-very-well-may-be/ to get an idea of our experience.
I have a medical tourism business, and I deal with many fertility specialists. I have researched, met with, and talked to dozens of fertility specialists in the course of business. My wife and I were succseeful in our first attempt with IVF at home only to lose the baby at 5 months. We then decided we would do it again away, and we chose Costa Rica / Panama for several reasons: price, proximity, success rates, and facilities.
A couple thngs to keep in mind. There is an additional couple hundred dollar cost for ultrasounds and tests (the whole IVF procedure come to about $2800 plus the cost of medication which is almost exactly half of that in The U.S. or Canada). ‘Super ICSI’ is part of very procedure at no additional cost.
His clinic in San Jose is in the JCI accredited (the highest international accreditation standard) CIMA Hospital. This is the premier private hospital in the country and is managed in Houston.
Dr Perez works with international patients starting on day 1 of January, March, May, July, September, November, and December. He is in charge of international patients. His partner is Panama does not speak English, so he flies with international patients on day 12 to Panama from Costa Rica. You will be in Panama until day 18 and then may return home.
Both are beautiful and safe countries. An 18 day vacation for you and your partner will cost you significantly less than doing it at home.
Please let me know if you would like any pictures of the clinic from my last visit, or I would be happy to make contact with Dr. Perez on your behalf.
What is your total cost for the IVF & ICSI, Epididymal -Testicular aspiration (includes anesthesiologist).(lab), and (medics)?
As a medical tourism facilitator, I get a lot of questions around IVF with Dr. Perez. We have 4 couples going for IVF on May 1 (my wife included) and several already booked for July 1. In fact, 3 of the women going are already blogging about their entire experience. They have given me permission to share with others, but we will wait until a bit further into the process.
We have been in contact with an American woman who has done this trip before and had twins. She kept going back to how it was exactly like when she did IVF in the States, including the medications.
Beacuse I get many questions about his service, I put together a link of FAQS that may be helpful for people considering this option: http://passportmedical.com/2010/03/an-affordable-ivf-vacation-in-costa-rica-panama-faqs/. If you have additional questions, my email is at the bottom of my blog post.
I hope you would not have reservations if I placed a part of this site on my univeristy blog?
Dear Panama Turismo,
I have no problem at all if you place part of this site on your university blog, all I ask is that you include a link back to my site.
All the best,
Sue
Your website is superb I will have to read it all, thank you for the diversion from my coursework!
Thank you Panama – but don’t let it be too much of a diversion from your coursework!!!
All the best,
Sue
Hello Everyone,
I have been working with Mark from Passport Medical and he has scheduled me for IVF on July 1st. The cost for me with everything is under $5,000. He is one of the nicest people that you could talk to and make this an easy transition. I have my 1st appt with Dr. Perez on July 1st and then I am going to an all inclusive resort for a week in Costa Rica while I am taking my meds…hopefully that should make it easier on me, lol. I have not been through IVF before but I will let you all know how it goes.
Carli
Hi Carli,
Thank you so much for posting about your IVF and the costs you are paying. We wish you every luck with your treatment and really look forward to hearing how you get on.
All the very best,
Sue
Hi,
Can I ask if you can also ask to get more information about the Egg Donor ( or Ovum Donor), if there is any other costs and also how the selection is made.
May I know – Mark – if any of your group going to be using Ovum Donor or anyone had the experience of using Dr. Perez/Centro Fecundar ‘s Ovum Donor?
thank you,
frida
In terms of egg donor IVF, take a look at the following post which will give you a good idea of what’s involved:http://passportmedical.com/2010/04/the-cheapest-egg-donor-ivf-option-for-north-americans/.
I have not had anyone use egg donation yet, but I get a lot of inquiries. We contemplated it for ourselves but decided we would do another shot with her ovum.
My wife and I just returned a couple days ago from Panama after a cycle, so we are crossing our fingers now. She is almost 43, and we got three grade 1 embryos which were implanted. Not as many follicles this time (which is par for the course given her age), but our embryo quality was the best yet). We even got to see them on a lab moniot before implantation which we thought was exciting.
I have been to Panama 5 times, and we like it a lot. If you haven’t been, it will surprise.
I am very interested in going through with this procedure in the next year or two. I have done a lot of research and this pretty much my only option short of adoption, which is way too expensive and time consuming. How would I find out more information and get a hold of the doctor and facility?
Hi Tahlia,
The email address for Dr. Ariel Pérez is centrofecundar@hotmail.com. I wish you all the look and do let us know how you get on, it is so valuable to hear from people who have contacted and used the clinics.
All the best,
Sue
HI ive tried emailing Mark for more info on cost etc for donor egg but havent had a reply.
Can someone let me know how long i would have to be there for?
Hi Naf,
If you check out the page for IVF on their website, http://www.centrofecundar.com/english/invitro.asp, it seems to be 11 days in Costa Rica and 6 days in Panamá.
All the best,
Sue
The required amount of time away for egg donation is 8-10 days. You will be prescribed medication to align your cycle with the donor.
As the donor will be going through the initial stimulation and monitoring, you will not be required to be there until approximately the 10th day.
very dissapointed…
Hi Penelope,
In what way is it disappointing? It would be very useful if you would be happy to share your experience.
All the best,
Sue
I am considering IVF at Centro Fecundar with Dr Perez. I am interested in some feedback on those who have been through the experience. Were their unexpected costs involved? Did you have a positive experience. Did your cycle result in pregnancy? My husband and I are very excited about this possiblity. I would love to hear from you.
hola mi nombre es carlos quiros soy de la zona norte , guatuso alajuela reserva indigena, mi situacion es lo siguiente : tengo 16 años de estar casado y mi esposa no ha podido quedar embarazada , hoy hemos llegado hasta grecia para que mi esposa se ponga en control , estando aqui en grecia encontre tu direccion, doctor hoy te escribo para pedir tu ayuda profesional, no tenemos dinero para pagar los gastos necesarios , nosotros tenemos seguro por el estado a travez de CONAI , esperando que comprendas mi situacion espero tu respuesta lo mas pronto posible .
gracias .
Hello,
I wish to say, that IN MY OPINION, “Dr.” Ariel Perez is a liar, a scam, and does not speak english well enough to warrant practicing outside his language. Anyone considering a trip to CR and/or Panama should be advised that he has a “one size fits all” approach, cannot cook an embryo past 3 days if his life depended on it, and invents his own math & statistics. Avoid him at all costs.
And it’s a shame, because this is a wonderful alternative to those OOP.
Hi Former Patient,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I was considering Dr. Ariel for donor IVF until I read you comment. Could you provide more detail on your experience?
Sue, do you have any advice to offer for determining how reputable is a clinic for IVF/Donor IVF?
Thank you,
Leslie
Hi Leslie,
Unfortunately the only advice I really have is to find others who have used the clinic and listen to their experiences. This is one reason why I set up this site, so people can share their experiences of each clinic and give others a better idea of the best place to go. It is an absolute mine field and I certainly know how difficult it is to actually make that decision on the clinic, the doctors can seem great, and then suddenly you start hearing things from patients that are not so good and you have to ask yourself if it is a one off or is that the experience all patients are getting. The more information we can share between us the better informed decisions we can all make.
I wish you every luck.
All the best,
Sue
Leslie, if you feel comfortable leaving your email for me to contact you, I will with details to our trip.
Former PatienTI would like to here about your experience as well… I’m scheduled to have IVF done with Dr.Perez this December. My email is lena@live.com
Thanks a lot
Hi,
I am the Healthy Living producer at WCPO-TV, the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati. After numerous viewer requests I am starting to work on traveling to Costa Rica for IVF. If there is anyone near the Cincinnati area who would like to share their story, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at Murraysuzanne1@gmail.com
Thank you!
Suzanne
Dear FORMER PATIENT… Can you email me and tell me about your experience with Dr. Perez? My email is: castor80901@mypacks.net Thank you!
Hello everyone,
I had my first IVF cycle done with Dr.Perez this December. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. I just want to let everyone know about my experience over there in hopes it might help others to decide. I somewhat agree with Former Patient’s feedback. Dr.Perez’s English is very poor. If you speak Spanish, you are in much better position. He is definitely not a scam though, he has a nice clinic in San Jose, his wife is an anesthesiologist there as well and he has a lot of local customers who are happy with him. I did get a feeling that he has a “one size fits all” approach which in our situation I thought was not a problem, since I am a very healthy 32 y.o and the only reason for IVF is my husband’s low sperm count. I had 14 eggs, 10 were fertilized. After 3 days, unfortunately only 3 embryos kept developing which killed our hopes for cryopreservation (the cost for this service now is $1000 to freeze+$1000 to transfer). I wasn’t even given an option of waiting for 5 days for better embryo selection. We had all 3 transferred and after spending 3 days in bed, flew back to the US. Nobody from his staff in Panama spoke any English at all. As I speak Spanish, I was able to understand what was going on but overall, I think Dr.Perez is not really set for international customers yet. I will not choose him for our second attempt for sure.
Hi, I am Costarican-american woman, 35 years all and I am thinking on going on my 3rd try with Dr. Perez. I tried 2 cycles already here in US but we are out of money, we cannot affort another try here.
My plan is to try and see if I can help those who want more information about this treatment, I would be doing my personal report, record, and story about my experience in my first country. I speak Spanish and I understand how frustrated this could be in another country where culture and everything is “like backwards” what we said here.
What I can say is that through my 2 cycles here in US I just feel like a number, just a number… and $$$ and $$$.
I did not know that they were doing it in Costa Rica until my second failed. It has been devastating the feeling, because it does not matter what people tell you, you have to go through this to understand how is a pain that comes from your soul, it is not real, it is hard to understand and whatever gave us hope we are not sure if we want to try on more time because if it works it would be awesome, but if not we all know how hard is going to be.
But here I am, getting strong to try one more time. I’m going to Costa Rica this Spring Break and meet with Dr. Perez and plan my next cycle for summer.
As I say, if God make me go through this and want to help too. So I would let you know when I have my story ready to show, hoping, it would have a happy ending!
I don’t know you but I understand what you are facing. Just keep going never give up! because if you try all these in order to have a baby is because you all have a wonderful heart and God would help you, according to His will. Your friend Tica.
Hi TICA,
I am very sorry to hear your first two attempts with IVF failed but am so thrilled you are going to try again and help others by sharing your story. The sharing of experiences is the most valuable thing you can offer others, it really helps when trying to decide where to go and understanding what to expect.
We wish you so much luck with your next attempt, our thoughts and prayers are with you.
All the best,
Sue xxx
This cost data is very out of date. Its around $6,000 now, and although in Costa Rica Dr Perez can do the early part of the consultations and folical stimulation the actual IVF has to be done in Panama at their sister center as it remains illegal in Costa Rica due to moral objections regarding “disposal of” unused fertilized embryos. But panama is just a quick hop away. 🙂
Note from Admin:
Apologies Alex for changing your wording on this comment (see the wording in ” “). We really appreciate your comment, and being such a sensitive issue I did have some comments from readers on the harshness of the original words used – I do feel, however, that the information you are giving readers is very valuable. I hope you don’t mind my change.
All the best,
Sue
Ho do I go about staring an IVF treatment with your hospital?
Former Patient I would also like to get information from you. Please send to caligirl-missy@hotmail.com. I am trying to go to Costa Rica in July. Mark, can you please contact me as well to the above email address? Has anyone had successful IVF with delivery from Dr Perez? Thank you for any and all information.
hi ,my husband had a vasectomy and he is 63 y.o.man,I am 35 y.o woman.He has 3 kids from previous Is it any chance to get pregnant with ICSI in your clinic and how much will cost us.
Thank you
Hola Tica, I m interesting on following services with Clinica Fecundar in C.R I m also costarrican. Me podrias ayudar con tu informacion ya que sos la ultima que informo darse tratamiento con el dr. Perez en abril, espero este mensaje te encuentre feliz y adelante con tus sueños, escribi a otras dos direcciones sin respuesta, si te parece mandame tu correo electronico. Muchas gracias y saludos, Pipa.
Pipa, mi correo es rosawise@suddenlink.net enviame un mensaje con mucho gusto comparto la informacion y experiencia. Saludos!
My email is rosawise@suddenlink.net I will share.
I have not done it yet because I had to go under surgery this year and we are hoping to finish the treatment this November, but I would like to make a little email group that we can help each other, I know how stress this can be and help each other could make it easy by sharing good and bad news too, my mail is rosawise@suddenlink.net for all those who want to share I also speak Spanish if someone needs help with it! Big hug, and I don’t know you but I will keep you in my prayers! :0)
I am currently going through a clinic and on been on birth control and estrace since June but eggs are low and have not been able to produce any follicles. I have given an option to go through ivf donor eggs. I cannot afford the service in the US therefore I am researching to find the cheapest but quality place I can find. I will like to know the cost at your clinic which will maybe include medication. Hotel and airfare I may be able to arrange. Please get to me ASAP as far as the cost, services and procedure is concerned and all other information you may be able to provide me also.
In December 2011, me and my wife travelled to Panama for IVF thru egg donor, few months before travelling I contacted Dr. Perez and and he guided us through the whole process, previously we had two IVF periods with her own eggs but both failed, we live in Canada and we don’t have the option of egg donor here in Canada, Dr. Perez helped us with egg donor and now my wife is 8 weeks pregenant, I am very happy , I will keep on posting in few months when I know more ……
Congratulations to you and your wife Hossein, we are so pleased for you.
All the best,
Sue xx
My wife and I went through Dr. Ariel Perez for IVF and I was not satisfied. After agreeing upon the number of eggs to transfer, Dr. Perez pushed my wife to increase the egg transfer higher, which resulted in multiple gestation. It was very dangerous to my wife’s health and the health of the babies. We are now in a difficult position. I would advise against Centro Fecundar. Dr. Perez tended to brush off questions and concerns. It was our fault that we were not as informed about IVF as we should have been, but Perez didn’t seem interested in helping understand possible outcomes. We should have shopped around before we settled on this clinic.
Hi Budd,
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience, I hope everything has worked out for you. Thank you for sharing your experience with us so others can learn and avoid similar situations.
All the best to yourself and your wife.
Sue
our dauther Emma was born on 31st. Aug. 2012 very healthly little girl, she 53cm tall and 3.8 kilos.
a million thanks to Dr. Perez and his Team.
Hello Budd,
Sorry to hear that, we had completely opposite experience with Dr. Perez, he was insisting not to transfer more than 4 eggs and we were hoping for 5 egg transfer (in fact we were hoping to get twins) I guess after three unsuccessful IVF we wanted to make this time it works, and you are right I guess south American doctors do not explain a lot , they assume patients should know some of these information, I am used to it because I come from country with similar doctors, but since I immigrated to Canada I see North American doctors explain everything very thorough.
Good luck to you and your wife , hope everything has turned out well for you guys.
Congratulation Hossein, that is wonderful.
All the very best,
Sue
Hello
I have 2, 5 day frozen embryos located in Bangkok Thailand ..we have had 2 successful FET transfers resulting in pregnancy and birth..we are now located in Costa Rica …can I ship my embryos to you for FET and can u set timeline etc for mom or do you reccomdnd setting timeline and prep of mom end flying to Thailand for transfer…obviously easier if we can achieve this here..we are in Manuel Antonio