Maggie and Jeff’s IVF Journey

Those of you who know us well know that we’ve been trying to expand our family for 5 years. For those that don’t, here is our saga thus far: 

After a year of trying, I was able to be referred to a fertility specialist who did a work up to explore what might be going on. This resulted in a confirmed diagnosis of PCOS, which is a common contributor to female factor infertility. We began a course of medicated treatment to help my body do what it need to do more efficiently. After half a dozen cycles, it was clear that we needed to move to the next level. Given all the stress that in fertility treatment entails, we decided to take a break from treatment for awhile. Prior to taking this breaks, my insurance coverage did not cover infertility treatment at all, as many plans don’t, because it’s considered an elective service. A single IVF cycle runs anywhere from $15-$25,000, which was solidly outside of our financial reach. However, when we decided to explore fertility treatment again, we learned that my health plan does now include infertility benefits. There was a $25,000 lifetime benefit, but that was enough to offer hope and we began the process of IVF late last fall. For those that aren’t familiar, IVF involves many hormone medications to assist the body in producing eggs, which are then retrieved, fertilized and then implanted. Though eight eggs were retrieved, only one embryo resulted due to either unsuccessful fertilization or a lack of embryo growth. It only takes one though, so there was still hope!

We discovered in early February 2021 that that “little embryo that could” had stuck and I was pregnant. Later that month, we learned that not only had it stuck but they had divided resulting in identical twins. This was quite an unexpected surprise but we were excited. In late March, at a routine ultrasound appointment I learned that neither baby had a heartbeat and appeared to have stopped growing two weeks prior. Devastation doesn’t even begin to describe how that felt for us. On top of that, I had to have not one but two surgeries, which only served to complicate the grieving process. Through chromosomal testing, we learned that they were two genetically normal girls. The pathology report indicated that everything appeared normal as well. This means that we don’t know specifically what went wrong nor do we know if it would happen again, but I was repeatedly told that not having a specific problem identified was more hopeful than the alternative. Since we knew them first as Baby A and Baby B, we thought they needed names with those letters as well so we named them Amelia and Britta.

We decided that we were ready to start again as soon as my body was up for it. This meant starting all over again rather than just transferring another embryo since we didn’t have any. It looked like we were going to be able to do that in July, but last week we learned that all but $3000 of my lifetime infertility benefit had been used. Though that would cover part of my medication, the specialty pharmacy where my medications were ordered coded me a co-pay of $10,000 for the remaining medication co-pay. This is the cost of one medication. Just one. On top of this, every ultrasound and every lab test run as part of my baseline work up for the cycle as well as the monitoring that must happen before retrieval will cost quite a bit, and then there’s the procedures and the anesthesia. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful to have had any coverage at all since I know what it’s like to have none though. The inadequacies in the healthcare industry in general and for this type of care are glaringly obvious, even for those of us lucky enough to be in a position to be able to get care at all.

Before I had an infertility benefit through my health insurance, I was very resistant to the idea of asking for financial support. It felt hugely vulnerable, uncomfortable and even a little weird to ask for support for my medical costs, let alone this kind of medical cost. However, in the past several months I’ve learned that asking for help is ok. The worst that can happen is that someone says ‘no’. We absolutely respect that not everyone can or will want to help us financially, so will take all of the prayers, good juju or whatever else you’re willing to offer. The goal we set for this will not cover all of the costs and we are planning to save up for several months with our own funds as well. Every little bit helps so anything given is much appreciated. We love and appreciate our family and friends immensely! Thank you for all of the ways you’ve already supported us and for continuing to walk this road with us.

Much love,

Maggie and Jeff