Ask a fertility patient what they wanted to know first, and most will say some version of the same thing: can we afford this? Look at most fertility clinic websites and that is the one question you cannot find an answer to.

There are understandable reasons. Costs vary by protocol, medication and what a patient’s insurance covers. A published figure can look like a promise. Nobody wants to quote a number and then be held to it by someone whose cycle turned out to need more.

But silence has a cost too, and it is paid by the clinic, not the patient.

What “contact us for pricing” actually says

To a patient researching at night across four clinic websites, “contact us for pricing” does not read as careful. It reads as one of three things: it is very expensive, it is complicated in a way that will be used against me, or they want to sell to me on the phone before I can compare.

None of those is what you meant. All of them send the visitor back to the search results, looking for a clinic whose page answers the question. And a patient who finds a clear answer somewhere else often does not come back.

You do not need a fee schedule

The fear is usually that answering cost means publishing a price list. It does not. What a patient needs at the research stage is enough to decide whether to call you. That is much less than a quote.

A good cost section on an IVF page has four parts:

  1. A range for a typical cycle, stated as a range, with the words “typical” and “varies” doing honest work. Not a “from” price that almost nobody pays.
  2. What the range includes, in plain words: monitoring, retrieval, lab work, transfer, and whatever else your package actually covers.
  3. What it does not include, which is usually medication, genetic testing, storage and additional cycles. This is the part that builds trust, because it is the part most clinics hide.
  4. How people pay for it: which insurers you work with, whether you help check coverage, any financing options, and whether multi-cycle packages exist.

Then one line on what happens next: “your coordinator will give you a personal estimate at or before the first consultation.”

The line items patients are comparing

Patients who have done their research compare clinics line by line, and the gaps are where trust is won or lost. A clear cost section names each of these and says whether it is in the cycle price, a separate fee, or not applicable:

  • Initial consultation and testing: the first appointment, ovarian reserve testing such as AMH, ultrasound, and semen analysis for a male partner.
  • The base IVF cycle: stimulation monitoring, egg retrieval (including anaesthesia), fertilisation in the lab and a fresh embryo transfer.
  • ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), which many clinics charge for separately.
  • Embryo freezing and storage, including the annual storage fee after the first year.
  • Frozen embryo transfer, priced per transfer, since many patients have one or more after the first cycle.
  • Genetic testing of embryos (PGT), if offered.
  • Medication, usually the largest variable, best shown as a range with a line on why it varies.
  • Donor eggs or sperm, if you offer donor cycles.

You can keep the figures as ranges. What matters is that nothing on the list comes as a surprise later.

Most clinics still say nothing

If this feels like a risk, consider how few clinics take it. A 2019 analysis of SART member clinic websites found that only about a quarter (89 of 361) published any pricing information at all, as reported in this cross-sectional study. A clinic that answers cost clearly is not exposing itself. It is standing out from three quarters of the market.

It also matters more in some places than others. IVF costs vary considerably from state to state, and so does insurance: some states require certain insurers to cover fertility treatment. If yours is one of them, say so on the page, and say whether you help patients check what their plan covers.

Where it goes on the page

High enough to be found without scrolling for it, and before the enquiry form. A patient should never have to fill in a form to find out whether they can afford to fill in a form.

On a long IVF page, a short cost summary near the top with a link to a fuller section further down works well. A separate costs page is fine too, as long as the IVF page links to it clearly. What does not work is a PDF price list behind an email gate.

The honest-wording problem

Cost copy goes wrong in two directions. It is either so hedged it says nothing (“costs vary depending on individual circumstances”), or so confident it implies an outcome (“one affordable price for your journey to parenthood”).

The first is useless and the second is a risk, especially anywhere near advertising, where claims about outcomes create policy and reputational problems. Aim for the tone of a good coordinator on the phone: specific, plain, and clear about what is and is not known yet.

A useful test is to read the section aloud as if you were the patient. If you would still have to call to find out whether it is in your range, it has not done its job.

Patients search for cost directly: IVF cost with your city’s name, IVF cost with insurance, egg freezing cost. A page that answers those questions honestly is a page Google can send those searches to. A page that says “contact us” gives it nothing to rank.

It also helps your ads. A paid click on an IVF ad that lands on a page with a clear cost section is far more likely to turn into an enquiry from someone who can actually go ahead, which is the only kind of enquiry worth paying for.

A short checklist

  • Can a visitor find a cost range for IVF without filling anything in?
  • Does it say what is included, and what is not?
  • Does it say which insurers you work with, and whether you help check insurance coverage?
  • Does it explain what happens next, and who gives the personal estimate?
  • Is it above the enquiry form?

If your IVF page fails two or more of those, it is very likely losing enquiries you never hear about. It is the third of the six common leaks, shown there before and after. The free website plan checks it on your own site, along with everything else on the path to a booked consultation.