Little girls dream of playing princess for a day in white wedding gowns and they dream of having more babies than any regular house can hold!
And so they should. We encourage their dreams of finding Prince Charming and nuture their love of children by teaching them to diaper dolls and cuddle babies to sleep.
What we don’t tell them is that there’s a really good chance, their dreams of parenthood won’t come true. We don’t tell them that 1 in 8 Canadian couples struggle with infertility.
We don’t tell them to start saving now, because the cost of IVF comes with a price tag of $15,000 for just one round.
No, we don’t tell them because that would be cruel. And it is.
It’s cruel and unfair for Canadian couples to have to put their dreams of being a family aside or go broke trying.
So how fair is it that one family can leave the hospital with a newborn and a $50 invoice for an upgraded room when another family who suffered a miscarriage, spent years emotionally dealing with infertility and then put the price of IVF on a credit card and leaves the hospital with a healthy baby but $15,000 in debt (one round with meds) or often $30,000 in debt after two rounds. How is that fair?
It’s not.
We were one of those couples that struggled with infertility. I couldn’t believe that something like money would keep us from becoming parents. Not here, not in Canada. This was not something we had control over, we were under 30 years old, healthy and active. It didn’t seem fair that we would start our family in deep in debt, that there wasn’t medical funding to assist us.
There is a clear opportunity right now for Premier Kathleen Wynne to differentiate herself from prior Leaders and build Ontario as the province to raise healthy families in. To be that province, Ontario needs to include IVF funding under OHIP. To be that province, Ontario needs to be fair.
Join in on the conversation follow @OHIP4IVF on Twitter or the hashtag #OHIP4IVF to support government funding for in vitro fertilization.
That is not fair!! Everyone should have funding!!!! I will be tweeting out!
thanks Mel!
We dealt with infertility as well! I definitely agree everyone should have the resources that help them be parents!
This had helped so many people I know.
I’m sorry you struggled with this. It sounds so difficult. It’s a shame that IVF can be so expensive. I hope that one day things change.
It makes me so sad to think of situations like yours, everyone deserves to have a happy and healthy family without going into debt over it. I know far too many families from my loss groups who are struggling with this right now both in the US and CA!
Great post! Thanks so much!