Has anyone purchased a Mirena IUD from an overseas/online pharmacy? They are about half the price ($225 vs. $600) and you can take them into the doctor's office for insertion. My understanding is you can get the real deal shipped to you. Some require a Rx others don't.
Plus I'm traveling to France and Mexico City in a couple months and thought about buying one when I was in France. Mexico makes me more nervous about getting a fake one.
Anyone do this or buy other Rx's before and have some advice?
The reason I'm looking into this is my Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance through General Mills has a $650 deductible for birth control procedures - the doctors office called them to confirm! The IUD is close to $600 and insertion is $200. So I'd be stuck paying that $690 - which is the $650 + 20% over that! The nurse at the Dr's. office said a couple patients have purchased their IUD's at the pharmacy and brought them in.
Over the long run the cost is about the same as the copay's for birth control pills over 5 years so maybe I shouldn't complain . I'm just frustrated that they don't cover something that would cost so much more if I got pregnant!
I'm not sure what kind of insurance you have that you are thinking about buying Mirena overseas, but my doctor put it in and I didn't have to buy it and my cost was only $125 the rest was cover by insurance.
Hi N.,
In the event that your bags are searched coming back into the U.S., they will confiscate the IUD, and your money will be wasted. (And the IUD is likely to come up on xrays when your luggage passes through that checkpoint, almost guaranteeing a search of your belongings and of those traveling with you.)
And you have to declare what you spend overseas, and if Customs finds out you lied on the forms, well, you see where this is going....
Also, unless you have already discussed this with your own doctor, no U.S. doctor in his right mind will insert an IUD that you bring in off the street. Imagine the tangled malpractice suit that could spring up if the IUD was defective??
Same deal with ordering prescriptions online. I had a male friend who ordered Viagra from Mexico. (Go ahead, laugh!). It got through the U.S. postal system the first time, but not the second. They confiscated the drugs, and sent the packaging on to him, with a letter stating what had happened. (Of course, the foreign websites won't tell you this--they want your money.) The USPS is totally on to what foreign addresses are sending prescription medicine.
I have my own personal beef with the FDA, and I think we Americans should have more freedom and control in our healthcare decisions, but I don't see this scenario having a happy ending....
Can you have the IUD inserted in France? I would check into that.
Planned Parenthood and other women's health clinics offer IUDs on a sliding fee scale--consider looking into that.
Also, if you do have insurance, but have a large deductible, verify whether or not they will cover any of the IUD. I have a large deductible, and I thought I would be on my own when I bought my diaphram, but insurance did cover a portion of it.
Good luck!
I agree with the others, I wouldn't trust it from anywhere other than your own Dr. Just check to see if your insurance covers it and how much. My cost to have it inserted was only about $30. You can call you insurance company to get a cost estimate, most insurances will cover birth control since it's cheaper for them in the long run than another child. you do decide to buy overseas, talk to your Dr to make sure he/she will insert it for you and how much they will charge you. Good luck!
Have you talked to your Dr. about whether they would insert it? I would think that not everyone will do it for liability reasons. Maybe see what they say and they may even offer some opinions about getting them overseas.
I too would not get it from Mexico.
I wouldn't buy it overseas, especially I wouldn't trust the Mexican market. I lived in Mexico before.... and if you do have a medical insurance, it should cover a chunk of the cost. I think I paid just the co-pay ($20 or so?) and nothing else.
