The cost of having Endo
Although it’s been more than 10 years since I was diagnosed with Endometriosis, I’m still paying for having endometriosis. Endometriosis has cost me a lot throughout this journey. It has not only cost me time spent with family, it has cost me my sanity, my job, but overall it has cost me a lot of money!
The cost of having endometriosis was adding up even before I was diagnosed with the condition because I had to go from doctor to doctor in search of an answer and the copays were adding up. When I finally found the Endometriosis Specialist I found out he was out of network which to me translated into out of pocket. The monthly visits not including labs or testing were about $300. The first surgery I had which was a laparoscopy endometriosis removal procedure was 12 hours long and although I thankfully had insurance and covered most of the surgery cost, I ended up paying around $5,000 out of pocket.
My first year of being diagnosed with endometriosis cost me over $6,000 and I’m not adding up the cost of hormonal medications into the mix which could rank it up to well over $7,000 in the first year alone. Because endometriosis caused me to have infertility I had to see an IVF (InVitro Fertilization) Specialist which then again was out of network=out of pocket, but I wanted to conceive or at least give it a try, so I went ahead. The fresh IVF procedure was over a whopping $30,000!! And that’s with insurance coverage. Since I was lucky enough to have embryos left, I opted to freeze them in case I wanted to try and conceive again. This option cost $1500 a year to have, I didn’t want to throw away good embryos, so I went ahead and froze them. For almost two years, and when doing the frozen embryo IVF I had to come out of pocket another $6000. In a matter of 5 years, I had already spent well over $50,000 because of endometriosis, and my journey was still not done.
After having my kids, I continued to have endometriosis symptoms and I opted for hysterectomy surgery. The surgery was the least expensive so far which cost me $1500. Although I thought that I was done with spending towards endometriosis, my journey didn’t end there. After having hysterectomy the endometriosis came back with a vengeance and I started looking into a more natural and holistic approach. Anything that is natural or holistic is not covered by my insurance. I started a new nutrition plan, membership to the gym, attending chiropractor, acupuncturist, energy healing sessions, pelvic pain therapist, life coaching therapist, functional nutritionist, functional medicine testing, herbs, supplements, essential oils, book, etc just to name a few with a cost of over $10,000.
What I have mentioned above have been some of the direct costs of having endometriosis, but there have been indirect costs, such as transportation, sick days and vacation days loss, precious time with family loss, and many other factors that can’t be calculated in. Sadly, I am not the only one that having endometriosis that has cost this much. According to a study [ https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/31/4/712/2379946] the estimated total direct cost per patient per year in the USA is $12118. That’s a high number! given than an average income salary is $30,000, that’s almost half the yearly income for an average person.
Having endometriosis hasn’t been easy and it has caused a lot of burden one big one being financially but I share this because I know the struggle of having endometriosis in all different aspects and it’s scary to see such a high cost of having endometriosis. I have spent well over $100,000 in my years with endometriosis, and have gained the insight necessary to help other women empower themselves with knowledge so they don’t do the mistakes I did and reduce their cost in having endo.
Let me help you reduce your Endo cost by working together.
Blessings,