Friday, April 13, 2007

Black market drugs

Quick question: Has anyone heard of buying fertility meds from strangers via ads on the internet? Is it against the law? Is it a very common practice? I was searching for the best price for Follistim to buy my last fix, and I came across a "craigslist"-ish type website where individuals have posted ads describing all the meds they have leftover from cycles (both for positive and negative reasons, I assume) with prices far lower than you could get from any pharmacy. Although this seems inherently frightening and creepy to me, I must admit that part of me is intrigued- the price for the Follistim I need would be about a third of what I'd pay from the pharmacy. Have any of you heard of this? What are your thoughts?

5 comments:

Jo said...

I have bought them that way. Need to be very careful as some people will take your money and run. It is against the law to sell meds that way from what I have been told.

I have bought all mine from ivfmedsdotcom... cheaper then the US and delivery was within 5 days.

To back track a little... Will you try IVF? Have you looked for another RE? Mine is in NoVa as well and he is in a practice alone.

The amount you are taking is not anywhere near the max dose.. I just hate to think that you may give up when it seems like you may have another chance.

just my 3 cents worth.

Baby Blues said...

I haven't tried or found the need to get black market drugs yet. But if you're spending so much already, maybe it would be better to invest on IVF already. It sounds more cost effective. And with the amount you're spending on stimulating those ovaries, I would want to make sure they get fertilized too which could only be assured by IVF.

jeanie said...

I'm sorry that this is a little off-topic, but I thought this info might be useful to you. A while back I read about a new ART procedure that may side-step your problem. It's called In Vitro Maturation and it avoids the danger of OHSS by removing immature follicles from the ovaries and maturing them in a lab where they can fed as much fsh as they need to develop without putting the patient at risk for OHSS. I don't know much more about it, and I don't think many clinics offer the procedure yet, but here is a link to one that does. (Note: I know nothing about this clinic-- no personal experience with them.)
http://www.ivf.com/ivm.html

This is my first post, but I've been lurking for over a month now. I really hope something wonderful happens for you very soon.

K said...

Hi Jeanie -

Thanks for your comment. Actually, my clinic is planning to offer IVM at some point, and several weeks ago during a monitoring appointment my RE mentioned that I'd be a great candidate for that program. He explained what it was, but said that they will likely not begin offering those services until late this year. I posted about this conversation, I think it was back in March... I'm glad you brought it up though, because it occurs to me now that it's kind of strange he didn't bring this up again last week - he didn't bring up IVM, he didn't suggest donor egg.....he just jumped to adoption. The more I think about that, the more upset I get. I'm glad I've made an appointment with another doctor at another clinic - at this point I feel so dissapointed in Dr. D that I just don't even want to talk to him anymore.....

jeanie said...

I wonder if your clinic had to put their plans on hold for some reason. The cynic in me wonders if some doctors neglect to mention options that they do not stand to benefit from financially, but I really hope I am wrong about that. At least you have been told by an RE that you would be a good candidate for this procedure. I think the appt with the new doctor will bring some hopeful news for you.