Someone asked me recently: with a ,000 RMB budget, should they do IVF in Chengdu or go overseas for surrogacy? Last year I did the math for two friends — one did two embryo transfers in Chengdu, the other went to Georgia for surrogacy. Same starting point, and a year later their spending and outcomes were wildly different. Once you lay the numbers out, you finally see where each step of the money actually goes.
The 6 Items on a Quote Sheet — I Asked Three Clinics to Piece Them Together
The first clinic’s quote only covered stimulation plus transfer. It looked cheap — under 120,000 RMB. Only when I pressed further did I learn that PGT screening, freezing fees, and luteal support meds were all excluded. So I built my own spreadsheet: ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval, roughly 40,000–60,000 RMB; lab culture, 10,000–20,000; genetic screening charged per embryo at 2,000–3,000 RMB each; transfer plus early-pregnancy support around 20,000; then travel and accommodation, another 30,000–50,000. Add flights and lodging, and any overseas IVF cost budget under 250,000 RMB is very likely to stall midway.
What you can do right now: ask the agency for a “full-cycle capped price” in writing — state clearly what happens if stimulation needs repeating, whether a second transfer costs extra, and get it on paper before you transfer any money.
From Stimulation to Pregnancy Test: How Long the IVF Process Actually Takes
I actually counted my friend’s Chengdu IVF cycle day by day — 47 days from file registration to pregnancy test: 7 days for registration and testing, 10 days of stimulation, 5 days of blastocyst culture after retrieval, 12 days waiting for screening results, 9 days preparing the uterine lining, then 14 days post-transfer before the test. If everything goes smoothly, one cycle is close to two months, but plenty of people fail screening and have to start over. Her second transfer came 4 months later because she needed to rebuild her lining again.
My advice: before starting a cycle, get both partners’ tests done in one batch on days 2–4 of the menstrual period — that alone saves at least two weeks of back-and-forth trips. And if chromosome screening takes two weeks, that’s normal. Don’t chase the lab.
In the Surrogacy Process Steps, the Middle Three Months Cost the Most
My other friend went the overseas surrogacy route. The process steps break down roughly like this: first, do IVF to create embryos (about 2–3 months), then match with a surrogate (1–2 months), then the surrogate’s pregnancy, and finally returning home to handle documents. Total timeline: 18–24 months.
The big money isn’t at the start. Early medical costs plus agency fees run about 150,000 RMB and change. But during the pregnancy, monthly payments, prenatal checkups, and the surrogate’s nutrition allowance mean 8,000–15,000 USD per month for the middle three months alone. Add post-birth legal paperwork plus flights and visas home, and the total landed cost approaches 900,000 RMB.
What you can do right now: confirm in the contract who covers pregnancy insurance and NICU costs in case of premature birth. If either of those happens, the difference can be well over 100,000.
Chengdu IVF vs. the Overseas Route — I Recalculated the Gap Assuming One Failure
If it succeeds on the first try, Chengdu IVF runs about 80,000–120,000 RMB total, while overseas surrogacy is ,000–1,000,000 — a full order of magnitude apart. But you can’t do the math once and stop. My friend failed two transfers in Chengdu, spent 210,000 RMB total, and her doctor then suggested looking at overseas options. If you’re older, have repeated implantation failure, or need third-party reproduction, going overseas in one shot may actually save the money burned on repeated attempts. But if it’s routine infertility and you’re under 35, trying two IVF cycles in Chengdu first is completely reasonable.
The decision rule is simple: check AMH and fallopian tube status first, then decide where to push your money.
My overall advice is a two-step plan: first complete the full test panel at home — get AMH, sperm DNA fragmentation, and uterine environment clarified. Then take those reports and compare two capped-price quotes, one for Chengdu IVF and one for overseas surrogacy. Split your total budget into three blocks — medical, out-of-cycle expenses, and legal/documents — and leave 15% of headroom in each before signing. And until the money is actually in place, don’t rush to pay a deposit.