$25,000 myomectomy

[Guest guest]

I'm sorry; I forget the name of the woman who posted about a $25,000 surgical

fee. $25,000 sounds outrageous to me for a surgeon's charges for an abdominal

myomectomy. I live in NYC, which is probably as expensive as it gets (or so I

thought) for medical procedures.

I had my myo done by Dr. Stanley West. He charges $10,000 for the most simple

myo; mine was $12,000 (I had over 40 fibroids and adhesions from previous

surgery which complicates it). And I've heard that he sometimes charges $15,000

for even more complicated surgery. And I believe that this is much more

expensive than most.

The doctor who did my first myo, 17 years ago, Dr. Goldstein, charges

$7,500 (or at least that's what I was quoted 1 year ago). Since he's also

supposed to be a great surgeon, I was going to have him do my myo. Until he

kept pressuring me to have a hysterectomy instead and made sure I knew that even

though he would attempt a myo, it *might* have to be converted to a

hysterectomy. Given that I knew it would be a long and complicated operation, I

feared that he would do what *he* thought was best, and not what I wanted.

So I went with Dr. West, despite his higher charges. Don't get me wrong; I LOVE

Dr. West. The only reason I considered not using him was his high fee and the

fact that since he doesn't accept insurance, I didn't know how much my plan

would cover for me going out of plan. (seems to be covering about 2/3 of it).

Are you certain that the doctor is not telling you the total cost, including the

operating room fee and the hospital stay? Has anybody here paid more than

$12,000? What city/country are you in? Perhaps fees are very different other

places. Is this person an incredible specialist? Is he the only person who is

willing/able to do a myomectomy on you, rather than a hysterectomy?

I understand that it would be difficult for you to shift your work-load, now

that you've rescheduled everything, but it might be worth it to check into other

local doctors.

R.