Economic Value Analysis: Sources for IVM vs IVF Cycles Comparison

This report provides an economic value analysis comparing In Vitro Maturation (IVM) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycles. It explores the sources of economic value, focusing on factors such as hormonal side effects, costs, and patient preferences. The analysis highlights that patients may prefer IVM due to fewer side effects and lower costs compared to IVF. The report also discusses the methods used to determine the willingness of couples to pay for an IVM cycle, considering factors like time taken for egg maturity and patient satisfaction based on the utility theory of value. The author proposes a charge of $12,000 for an IVM cycle, justifying the price based on the benefits and improved patient experience compared to IVF.

Running head: ECONOMIC VALUE ANALYSIS 1
SOURCES OF ECONOMIC VALUE ANALYSIS
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ECONOMIC VALUE ANALYSIS 2
Introduction
Economic value refers to the maximum amount of money a client is willing to give for an
item or a service in an open market economy. The economic value of a product or service is
usually set by the partialities of a certain group of people and the tradeoffs its members create
given their own resources. Economic value is right connected to the worth that any given market
places on a product. Considerably the Economic value cannot be considered as static since it
fluctuates whenever the prices or the qualities of similar products changes. The way people
decide to spend their earnings, therefore, defines a product or service economic value.
Sources of economic value for IVM vs IVF
There are several sources of economic value which are differing between the two cycles.
These sources act as a determinant factors from which the clients will base their decisions on
which one to adopt and the one to ignore. These factors ranges from the clients expected
outcome and the consequences to incur in undergoing the whole process. Based on the lecture
notes the following sources have been identified as the key determinants of economic value
comparison between the IVM and the IVF (Smith & Desvousges, 2011).
Hormonal side effects to clients
IVF step one which involves the process of Hormonal stimulation has had many side
effects both physical and physiological. These side effects include but not limited to; Nausea,
mood swings, general discomfort and reduced sexual desires which to some cases leads to loss of
work days. This step of Hormonal stimulation is avoided when it comes to IVM cycle but the
rest of steps such as egg aspiration, fertilization and Embryo transfer adopted typically as in the
IVF (Richardson & Loomis, 2014).

ECONOMIC VALUE ANALYSIS 3
Considering both physical and psychological side effects which are associated with this
initial step of IVF cycle such as Nausea, mood swings and general discomforts; clients are likely
to shy away from going the IVF mode to IVM. This is clearly a source of economic value
favoring the IVM mode to IVF (Debreu, 2011).
The costs incurred to undergo either the IVM or IVF
The IVM mode makes use of only the 2-4 steps of IVF. Due to this avoidance of the
hormonal stimulation first step of IVF, the number of significant costs of the IVM becomes
considerably low since some costs such as prices for IVM media have been cut. This mode
aggregates to $4,000 less costly when it is assessed in consideration with the IVF mode. Clients
will prefer this mode to IVF since it’s quite cheaper. This as well becomes a source of economic
value in favor of IVM mode (Woodward & Wui, 2014).
Methods used to determine the willingness of couple to pay for a Cycle of IVM
Hormonal side effects
The effects of hormonal stimulation as depicted by the IVF cycle had negative impacts
and due to this factor, it is even evident that a couple could even start the process and terminate
before even reaching the final stage. This confirms the severity side effects of this mode. Having
an alternative to evade these severe psychological and physical tortures was a big relieve. This
relief was no other than the introduction of IVM. This shows that clients with infertility problems
would be highly willing to pay for this mode to evade the severe side effects involved with
adopting the IVF cycle (Richardson & Loomis, 2014).

ECONOMIC VALUE ANALYSIS 4
Time taken for the egg maturity
Initially, the maturity period taken by the egg was 30 days. This is the statistics based on
the IVF cycle. This is considerably a long time periods of waiting considering the alternative
period of 2 days applicable in the IVM cycle. The waiting time cost in this scenario would then
play a very significant role for the choice to be made by the client. To evade these long periods
of egg maturity waiting, clients would be willing to sacrifice any amount purposely to have this
cycle hastened (Smith & Desvousges, 2011).
Individual decision on the amount to charge for a cycle
Holding some factors constant such as insurance coverage, channels and regulations I
would charge $12000 for a cycle of IVM. Basing my argument on the utility theory of value
where the price and the value are believed to solely be based on the level of satisfaction an
individual receives from a certain product or a service (Smith & Desvousges, 2011), IVM cycle
had all the benefits clients would wish to get in cases of infertility problem. To begin with, it did
not have the side effects initially encountered in its earlier version “IVF”.
Secondly, the maturity of eggs could take 2 days which was quite a reduced duration
when compared to the time this maturity process could take in IVF (30 days). These two
important improvements of IVM cycle compared to IVF cycle ensured high levels of client
satisfaction. According to Utility theory of value, these benefits of IVM over the IVF directly
qualified this Cycle to me of more value than IVF and bearing in mind that the cost of IVF stood
at $9000, this satisfies my proposed cost for the IVM cycle (Richardson & Loomis, 2014).

ECONOMIC VALUE ANALYSIS 5
References
Debreu. (2011). Theory of value: An axiomatic analysis of ecological equilibrium. Washington:
University press.
Richardson, & Loomis. (2014). sources of economic value to an industry. Journal of ecological
economics, pp.126-187.
Smith, & Desvousges. (2011). An empirical analysis of the economic value. journal of political
economy, pp.134-156.
Woodward, & Wui. (2014). The economic value of healthy services .