Help Mandy and Kemper with IVF Expenses
Donation protected
We are Kemper and Mandy Gibson. We will have been married 5 years this coming May! We always knew we wanted to have children as we both enjoy working with kids. We even met working as camp counselors! However, we wanted to be settled in a house with full-time jobs before we started trying to have a baby.
2 1/2 years ago, we started trying to get pregnant. After a few months of trying to get my body on a regular schedule, I went to my OB-GYN just to touch base. After 7 months on medicine to induce ovulation, still nothing. A year ago we began going to a reproductive endocrinologist. After lots of tests and the ever pleasant blood work, we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility, which means they don't know why we are having trouble.
We had two failed IUIs in the spring of 2020 right before the coronavirus entered the picture. We decided to take a break because of the pandemic and for our mental health. In November we randomly found out we were pregnant, but a few days later we found out that we lost the pregnancy.
So now we find ourselves pursuing IVF. While we both work for the school system and therefore have state benefits, our insurance does not cover any fertility treatments, and everything is quite expensive. All of the IVF procedure (tests, retrieval, transfers, etc). cost over $15,000. Medicine for one cycle runs between $4,000-$6,000. We are electing to do testing on the embryos to check for genetic abnormalities (since we are unexplained we feel this is a necessary step). Testing costs $200 per embryo and $500 for shipping.
We have decided to become public about our journey because so many experience miscarriage and infertility in private when it is a very common thing. We hope to bring awareness to infertility because unless you go through it, you have no idea everything that goes into it. We've already heard from random people (like the financial services officer at our bank) that had no idea how expensive fertility treatments are.
We never even thought about creating a GoFundMe, but some friends specifically suggested it as they wanted to donate. We feel that there are way more important causes to donate to, and we don't want anyone to feel like they have to donate. Thoughts, prayers, and well wishes are just as valued!
Note: Please also know that we are open to adoption in growing our family. However, we have learned just how expensive this is as well. A lot of the agencies we looked into are $40,000+, and that's for domestic adoption! International adoptions can cost more. Some agencies we talked to are not even accepting new clients because they have such a long waitlist (which is a good problem to have!) We greatly admire people that adopt out of foster care, but we are really hoping for a young infant which is rare in these cases.
2 1/2 years ago, we started trying to get pregnant. After a few months of trying to get my body on a regular schedule, I went to my OB-GYN just to touch base. After 7 months on medicine to induce ovulation, still nothing. A year ago we began going to a reproductive endocrinologist. After lots of tests and the ever pleasant blood work, we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility, which means they don't know why we are having trouble.
We had two failed IUIs in the spring of 2020 right before the coronavirus entered the picture. We decided to take a break because of the pandemic and for our mental health. In November we randomly found out we were pregnant, but a few days later we found out that we lost the pregnancy.
So now we find ourselves pursuing IVF. While we both work for the school system and therefore have state benefits, our insurance does not cover any fertility treatments, and everything is quite expensive. All of the IVF procedure (tests, retrieval, transfers, etc). cost over $15,000. Medicine for one cycle runs between $4,000-$6,000. We are electing to do testing on the embryos to check for genetic abnormalities (since we are unexplained we feel this is a necessary step). Testing costs $200 per embryo and $500 for shipping.
We have decided to become public about our journey because so many experience miscarriage and infertility in private when it is a very common thing. We hope to bring awareness to infertility because unless you go through it, you have no idea everything that goes into it. We've already heard from random people (like the financial services officer at our bank) that had no idea how expensive fertility treatments are.
We never even thought about creating a GoFundMe, but some friends specifically suggested it as they wanted to donate. We feel that there are way more important causes to donate to, and we don't want anyone to feel like they have to donate. Thoughts, prayers, and well wishes are just as valued!
Note: Please also know that we are open to adoption in growing our family. However, we have learned just how expensive this is as well. A lot of the agencies we looked into are $40,000+, and that's for domestic adoption! International adoptions can cost more. Some agencies we talked to are not even accepting new clients because they have such a long waitlist (which is a good problem to have!) We greatly admire people that adopt out of foster care, but we are really hoping for a young infant which is rare in these cases.
Organizer
Mandy Tompkins Gibson
Organizer
Hendersonville, NC
