@ivana_gigovic's pregnancy testing habits, fact-checked

What did @ivana_gigovic actually say?

Ivana expressed genuine sticker shock at pregnancy test pricing, noting that a single test costs around $15 in Australia, and a pack of three runs $40 to $60. She says she has "only ever done a few" tests in her 4.5-year fertility journey, contrasting herself with people who test frequently. Her core argument: pregnancy tests should be free, or at least heavily subsidized, for people going through infertility treatment who are already spending tens of thousands of dollars on IVF cycles.

This is less a medical claim and more a cost-access argument rooted in personal experience. She is not giving medical advice. She is venting about healthcare economics from a place of real financial and emotional exhaustion. That context matters when evaluating what she said.

Does the science back this up?

The pricing she describes is accurate for Australia, and the broader point about cost burden on fertility patients is well-supported by research. Studies consistently show that out-of-pocket costs represent a significant barrier to fertility care access.

A 2019 study by Dieke et al. in Fertility and Sterility found that financial strain is one of the top reasons patients discontinue IVF treatment before achieving pregnancy. A 2021 analysis by Chambers et al. in Human Reproduction documented that Australian IVF patients face some of the highest cumulative out-of-pocket costs among high-income countries, often exceeding AUD $10,000 per cycle after Medicare rebates.

Pregnancy test costs are not typically studied in isolation, but when you frame them within a pattern of repeated monthly disappointment and ongoing treatment expenses, the psychological and financial toll compounds. Her instinct that testing frequently adds both financial and emotional cost is consistent with what reproductive psychologists have documented about the anxiety cycle in TTC patients.

What did they get wrong (or right)?

She got the emotional logic right. The financial burden of fertility treatment is real, documented, and routinely underestimated by people outside that experience. Her framing of repeated negative tests as paying money to feel disappointed is not melodrama. It reflects a well-documented psychological phenomenon called the two-week wait, which researchers like Eugster and Vingerhoets (1999, Human Reproduction Update) identified as a distinct source of cyclical anxiety and grief in IVF patients.

Where her argument gets imprecise: she implies that testing frequently is a universal behavior among TTC patients, which is not quite right. Testing frequency varies widely based on protocol, emotional coping style, and clinical guidance. Some clinicians actively advise patients not to home-test after IVF embryo transfer because early positive results can reflect trigger shot HCG rather than implantation, leading to false hope. So the question of whether to test at all, let alone how often, is clinically nuanced.

Her call for free pregnancy tests is a policy opinion, not a medical claim, and it is a reasonable one to debate.

What should you actually know?

If you are going through IVF, the timing of when you take a home pregnancy test matters more than most people realize. A home urine test after a fresh transfer can detect residual HCG from the trigger shot for up to 14 days post-injection, depending on the dose used. That means a positive result early in the two-week wait may not indicate pregnancy at all.

Clinical beta HCG blood tests, ordered by your fertility clinic, are the standard for confirming IVF pregnancy. These are typically covered or subsidized under Medicare in Australia (MBS item 66695). Home pregnancy tests are supplementary at best in an IVF context, not diagnostic.

The broader cost-access issue Ivana raises is a legitimate public health concern. Research by Macaldowie et al. in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (2021) showed that access to IVF in Australia, despite partial Medicare coverage, remains strongly correlated with socioeconomic status. Adding recurring out-of-pocket costs like pregnancy tests to an already expensive process does create real inequity.

The bottom line

Ivana is not making a medical claim here. She is making a cost-equity argument from lived experience, and the data supports her frustration even if the specifics of test frequency are more variable than she implies. The real clinical takeaway for anyone in active IVF treatment is to follow your clinic's guidance on when and whether to home-test, because doing it too early can generate misleading results that cause unnecessary distress in either direction.