The Crippling Costs of Infertility
I've had the "pleasure" of knowing for the last decade that it's really expensive to have a Chronic Illness, or a medical condition, or to need surgery or regular medication. (Thank you, Crohn’s Disease)
Four years ago, I learned how expensive it was to struggle with Infertility.
I live in one of the 16 states that offer SOME insurance coverage for Infertility treatment. I should consider myself "blessed"
However, I'm currently ignoring the growing pit in my stomach as I start putting my ducks in a row for our next round of IVF. As I shared in my last blog post, we have no frozen embryos left after our last two FET failures. This means that to proceed with trying to conceive a second child, we have to start again. Testing, followed by stims cycle, egg retrieval, egg fertilization, genetic screening of our embryos, and hopefully, frozen embryo transfer prep.
Here's what I know so far.
With insurance support, we already are being asked to pay, upfront the following:
$2100 to the Fertility Office
$870 for ERA test - currently the only option to possibly learn more information about why our last transfer may have failed
$954 for the minimum amount of prescription medications for STIMS
$1650 for PGS genetic testing of embryos (variable cost depending on number of embryos)
+ What's billed to my insurance for every single monitoring visit, set of bloodwork, appointment with my doctor, the ERA procedure, the egg retrieval procedure, etc.
Friends. WITH INSURANCE, for a MEDICAL CONDITION, I'm looking at a MINIMUM payment of $5500 to TRY to get pregnant. This is just one portion of the total. One season in the trying. This doesn’t include what we’ve lost to failed treatments. What we spent to bring our beautiful daughter into the world. How much farther we’ll need to go to complete our family.
This $5500 is a minimum.
This $5500 cannot and will not guarantee me a baby.
We have to do better.
Insurance has to do better.
Healthcare has to do better.
Infertility is NOT a choice.
Infertility is a MEDICAL condition.
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Note, THIS is why when celebrities talk nonsense about "the IVF" it's incredibly damaging to our community. Fertility treatment is portrayed as something available a-la-carte for affluent, caucasian families, rather than a necessary medical treatment for an individual unable to conceive naturally.
If you're struggling to figure out how to finance your fertility treatment, please know you're not alone.
IVF is not for picking twins, or choosing the gender of your baby. It's literally the only option for pregnancy some of us have. And even then, it's NOT A GUARANTEE.
Also, please note that I am one of the LUCKY ones.
This is at the very low end of the cost spectrum for fertility treatments. Many others have bills that are FIVE to TEN times the amount of mine.
My heart breaks for people who have to choose to forgo treatment and their dreams of parenthood because of the price tag.
My heart aches for the people who feel this weight of financial struggle - picking treatment may mean skipping a lot of other things.
If you’ve ever tried to understand what it’s like to live with Infertility - here is just one tiny piece.
Today I want to share these resources for Infertility Grants, Scholarships & Financial Support:
The Stork Foundation For Infertility
Fertility IQ - Free Grants & Charities
Resolve - Infertility Grants & Scholarships
As an Infertility Doula who is both personally and professionally well-educated in this space, please reach out to me if I can help you learn about your options for financial aid while navigating the other stressful aspects of Infertility.
And, as always, I’m sending my love to anyone else feeling this. <3
