At 45 I put my labs on the kitchen table: AMH 0.6, FSH 15.8. My doctor didn’t push me out the door, he just said time was not on my side. I had already run one cycle in Guangzhou: 3 eggs retrieved, 1 blastocyst, no implantation. After that I stopped reading success stories and started doing arithmetic. A Guangzhou cycle runs around RMB 80,000. Greece starts at RMB 120,000. Surrogacy is a different universe entirely. Here is how the money actually moves, line by line.
The RMB 78,000 Guangzhou Cycle: Four Lines I Circled
In 2026 I started a cycle at a clinic in Tianhe, Guangzhou. The package was RMB 78,000, and before signing I asked the consultant to break it down to item level. Four lines came back vague, and those are exactly the four you should pin down.
Stimulation drugs: domestic meds start at RMB 3,000, imported pens run RMB 1, each, and at 45 you usually need more. Mine came to RMB 16,000. Blastocyst culture: RMB 3,000 per attempt, charged whether or not the embryo makes it. PGT-A screening: RMB 3,000 per embryo, I sent one and paid RMB 3,000. Cryopreservation: RMB 2,000 for year one, then RMB 1,500 a year.
Actual spend was RMB 94,000, roughly RMB 16,000 above the package price. Two questions before you sign: is the drug cost settled at actual usage or capped, and if the retrieval yields zero eggs, which items are refundable and which are not. Get both answers in writing.
Greece’s ‘From RMB 121,000’ Quote: The Gap Sits in Drugs and Housing
I did go to Greece in the end. The clinic quoted EUR 15,500, about RMB 121,000 at the exchange rate then, covering retrieval, ICSI, one transfer and the first year of freezing. Only after landing did I see where the difference hides.
First, drugs. European clinics mostly prescribe imported recombinant FSH. At 45 I was on 300 IU a day for 11 days, billed separately at EUR 2,600. Second, housing. Apartments near the center start at EUR 900 a month, plus two return flights at about RMB 11,000. Thirty days door to door came to RMB 168,000.
One detail worth remembering: several Greek centers require a hysteroscopy and a cardiac assessment before starting a cycle for patients over 45. That is another EUR 700 or so, and it is rarely printed on the quote. My rule for anyone my age is to ask three numbers out loud: does the quote include medication, how many transfers are included, and what does a second transfer cost after a failure. Once those are clear, the gap with Guangzhou looks far less mysterious.
Why Surrogacy Jumps From RMB 620,000 to 910,000
With my own eggs and my own uterus, the odds at 45 are thin, so I started looking at surrogacy. Pricing swings enormously by country. Two quotes landed on my desk: RMB 620,000 and RMB 910,000, a gap of RMB 290,000. Here is how that gap splits.
Surrogate compensation accounts for RMB 80,000 of it, with Eastern Europe starting around RMB 180,000 and North America around RMB 300,000. Legal work and parentage establishment add RMB 60,000. Insurance adds RMB 50,000, and the real question there is whether multiple pregnancy and premature NICU stays are covered. Embryo-related work adds RMB 50,000, depending on whether donor eggs are included and how many PGT screens. Agency service fees make up the last RMB 50,000.
The moment that stays with me: I sat with both contracts until 2 a.m. and found the RMB 620,000 version said nothing about what happens if three transfers fail. That silence is the most expensive clause in the document.
If Your Budget Is RMB 500,000, Spend It in This Order
I eventually ranked my own spending, and I would suggest the same order to anyone at 45. First, set aside RMB 30,000 for a full workup: the six hormones, AMH, hysteroscopy, semen analysis and DNA fragmentation. In Guangzhou that runs about RMB 8,000, and the rest stays in your account rather than an agency’s. Do not hand it over early.
Second, budget RMB 90,000 to RMB 100,000 for one Guangzhou cycle and run it first. Your egg count and blastocyst result are the cheapest real data you will ever buy. Third comes Greece at around RMB 170,000, treating it as a change of protocol rather than a guaranteed upgrade. Surrogacy is the last line item, not the first, because it consumes the entire budget in one move and leaves nothing for a second attempt.
None of this makes 45 easy. What it does is stop you from paying for surprises. Write the numbers down, ask the ugly questions before you sign, and keep one cycle’s worth of money untouched until you have your own data in hand.