Leftover Medication & Lessons Learned

So friends, one of the lessons I learned from our IVF cycle is that some doctors recommend that you order all of your medications at once. I suppose that there are benefits to having all of your medication delivered at once. With a box of expensive drugs you get to take the money shot photo of all your baby making medications laid out on display, and I imagine that there is less worry about a freak snowstorm (in southern california?) shutting down the pharmacy and preventing delivery of a refill order mid cycle.

The downside however is that your medication protocol changes over the course of your cycle, depending on how you are responding to the medication. In my case, my dosages were reduced at every monitoring visit, which meant that at the end of my cycle I am sitting on thousands of dollars of leftover medication.

I shared this with my Doctor after our cycle and he explained that it is illegal to sell prescription medication, however I was welcome to donate it back to the clinic and they will donate it to future patients. I might have been open to this recommendation, except that I wasn't offered any donated medication for our cycle, and seriously I am sitting on thousands of dollars of unused medication. If I was going to make a thousand dollar donation, it would probably be to a very different cause and qualify me for a donation tax credit.

At least I can share this lesson learned with all of you who have yet to order your box of medication. And for our next cycle, when we are ready to do this again, I will most definitely remember to order a minimum amount of medication knowing that we can order additional medication as needed via overnight delivery throughout the cycle.

I am feeling like I want to get these meds out of our house, but at the same time, if I can't sell them, then I might as well keep them around. I'd hate to give them away for free now and have something awful happen that might require us to purchase more. All but the progesterone in oil have expiration dates that would let me hang on until December. Then in December, when I am holding our miracle baby, I might feel better about giving them away.

I keep wondering if there is a way to 'trade' these medications - you know, like a barter of sorts? Any suggestions?

In the meantime, check out my pharmacy of extra medication...

Menopur 2 x 75 iu  (exp 7/2012)

Vagifem estradiol vaginal tablet 10 mcg, #2, (exp 7/2013)

Zarah Tablet (Yasmin generic), 12 active pills, (exp 10/2012)

Endometrin progesterone vaginal insert 100mg, #16, (exp 8/2012)

Progesterone in Oil (Ethyl Oleate) 50 mg/ml, 10ml (exp 10/05/2011) - still sealed

Progesterone in Oil (Ethyl Oleate) 50 mg/ml, 10ml (exp 10/05/2011) - half used, no longer sealed

Ovidrel prefilled 250 mcg syringe refrigerated, #1, (exp 7/2012)

Follistem AQ Cartridge 900 iu, two full cartridges!, (exp 3/2013)

Follistem pen with partially filled cartridge (exp 3/2013)