Small Helpings

Being here in Korea with a limited supply of other foreigners to speak with about babies is sometimes hard.

Out of all the people we know personally only 1 has had a baby and no one we know in Korea, foreigner or Korean, has had fertility problems.   Super.

That is the entire reason for this blog.  Someone at some point may need it and not living in Seoul, it would be a good idea for other people to know where to start.

I had a conversation with 2 ladies about our process so far and thought that perhaps this conversation may be needed by more than just them, so I am posting my side of the conversation in the hopes that it may help others.



Here is the information about the hospital my husband and I are using.
http://mariababy.com/neweng/about/about_01.asp.  They are open on Saturday's until 1pm. The open up at 8am or 8:30am.  It is best if you get there way early if you go on a Saturday as it is the only one we have found to be open on a Saturday and literally, the place is so filled, sometimes there is no where to sit.

Be prepared to wait and be prepared to have a broken English conversation. We have waited about 2 hours for results of our testing. They do not deliver babies.  Only the fertility part of baby making.

My husband and I have tried a few other places and this place was the only one who wanted to check him for infertility. I had a few doctors actually tell us they would not check him because he was a man and it was my fault we were not pregnant. Needless to say, we went looking for another doctor.

The process is very quick and easy for testing: I put on a skirt and they used the wand thing to check my insides for blockages, etc. and then if you have them (I did not) they send you at another time to a place across the street to have the dye test. The price for me to be tested was about 23,000w. I did not have to have the dye testing, but I asked about how much that would be and they said maybe 50,000w. Not sure on the exact price of that.

For my husband, he was simply told not to do any type of sexual activity for a week and no drinking/smoking during that week and then he went and used a cup. He says they had a nice room and a recliner chair and one TV with one channel...Korean.  The price for him to get tested was about 30,000w.

That was our longest wait honestly, waiting for his results. Our only option is IVF.

IVF at this hospital is about $3,000USD per treatment (per their website).

Since this is a private hospital, I am not sure if this amount is higher or the same as the rest of Korea but it is way lower than America so we are going to try it.

We will begin in September when we have the money saved up and go from there.
The doctor and other staff were extremely helpful and yes, the doctor speaks English, but not fluently. But it is good enough for us. We used our phone dictionary for words that did not translate and he was very understand, kind and helpful. The place is clean and bright. We (I) looked up the process for this from start to finish on websites such as babycenter.com so I would know if they are following in a similar way (they are) and I feel they are more modern than other facilities we have tried here for this.
They specialize in infertility so that is a good thing for us.

I don't mind discussing anything and none of this make me uncomfortable or anything. To us, if it happens, it happens. We are going to try to not let it upset us too much if it doesn't happen. So far, we're good.