Business Insider: Inside the internet's underground fertility drug trade

In vitro fertilization drugs are expansive and only 13 states mandate insurance coverage in this area.  Even when patients are insured, essential in vitro fertilization drugs, which can cost up to $5,000 per round, are often excluded. Just as patients overcome biological hurdles to parenthood, they need to clear financial ones as well. That has led to a booming underground drug trade on Instagram.

Suruchi Thakore, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UC, warns that patients who source their own drugs may compromise their own fertility treatment.  Medications from unconventional sources, whether it’s a neighbor, Instagram follower, or overseas pharmacy are more likely to have been improperly stored. And that can lower their effectiveness, Thakore, a UC Health physician, told Insider.

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