Campaign Story

Hi! My name is Lisa and my husband’s name is Rich, and we would love to share our story with you.

Rich and I have been trying to concieve for over three years now. Our journey so far has included all of the standard diagnostic fertility tests: ultrasounds, bloodwork, an HSG to make sure my tubes are open, and sperm analysis. We’ve also been doing fertility acupuncture for over a year, and recently we tried two rounds of IUI (intrauterine insemination) combined with fertility medications & ultrasound monitoring. Despite all of these treatments, we have never gotten a positive pregnancy test.

Our official diagnosis is unexplained infertility, which basically means that our chances of concieving on our own are roughly 3% per cycle (for a couple with normal fertility, it’s around 20%). IUI combined with fertility medications only gets our chances up to around 10% per cycle. Considering we’ve had two failed rounds of IUI and we now suspect I may have endometriosis, we’ve been advised by our doctor to move on to IVF (in-vitro fertilization), which would get our odds up to roughly 65% per cycle.

Fertility treatments are very costly, and since both of us are self-employed freelancers, we don’t have the kind of insurance that covers it. Our out-of pocket expenses to date have already exceeded $10,000. The national average cost of a single round of IVF with medications is $28,000, and if we end up needing multiple egg retrievals or embryo transfers, that number could go even higher.

While looking into ways to make IVF affordable for us, we came across a clinic on the east coast called CNY Fertility that offers IVF for roughly 1/3 the cost of the national average. We’ve calculated that a single round of IVF with them will cost us around $10K, so even when you factor in travel costs, it’s still a substantially lower price than what we would pay here in LA. As you can imagine, CNY Fertility is in very high demand, so the earliest consultation appointment we could get with them is July.

In the meantime, we are doing everything we can to set ourselves up financially to make this happen. We’re saving up as much as we can and we’re applying for grants wherever we can find them. We are also reaching out to our friends and family for support.

We have been dreaming of welcoming our little bundle of joy into our lives for many years. I myself have been working as a nanny for nearly 20 years, and as much as I have loved caring for other people’s children, I very much want to love and nurture a child of my own. Rich and I have both wanted this our whole lives. Anything you can give to help make our dream a reality would be greatly appreciated.