Campaign Story

Our names are Brittany and Stephen, we have been married for 5 years and have struggled to conceive for a little over 3 years. We initially didn’t start with fertility issues. We decided to start a family and I got pregnant fairly quickly. We were so excited! But we soon learned that I was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. This required me to be rushed into emergency surgery and ended with the removal of one of my fallopian tubes, creating our current problem. Despite our situation, I was VERY lucky and am VERY thankful for the team of doctors and medical staff I had.

*For anyone who doesn’t know, ectopic pregnancy is when the pregnancy attaches itself outside of the uterus. It is not a viable pregnancy and if not caught in time, can be life threatening for the mother due to organ rupture and internal bleeding.

We have tried every other fertility treatment available (except IVF) with no success (including 4 failed rounds of IUI). The reason we have put off moving forward with IVF is due to the cost and the lack of insurance coverage we have. My husband is active military and we are covered under his insurance, which offers no IVF assistance for non-service related injuries. They DO offer discount IVF services for active duty military members at specific bases (this was our original plan) but due to our previous ectopic pregnancy, we were automatically disqualified for it. Before our last move (Dec 2023, my husband received a new duty location) I was also employed through the federal government as a civilian employee, and again, no IVF coverage insurance options.

The fertility treatments we have done thus far have been completely paid for out of our own pocket. They haven’t come cheap, but we both worked hard to save and managed to make it work (my husband is also a rockstar at budgeting). We have successfully saved up a nice little fund for IVF and thought we were ready. Made an appointment and had our consult. BUT then came the cost of medications and the lab work, with no insurance benefits or coverage for ANY of it…good grief Charlie Brown…we could use a little help.

We love to travel and camp/hike with our dog Franny. We have seen many beautiful places and have had so many fun experiences, but we would consider having a family to be our greatest adventure. Plus, we already promised our dog a new best friend 🙂.

I must admit, crowd funding for this feels awkward. We were both raised to work hard and to not expect handouts. You earn what you have, and you certainly don’t “air your dirty laundry” to strangers on the internet. I’m not sure if I have given the correct information for this sort of thing, but thank you. If you made it to the end, thanks for considering us and thank you for taking the time to even just read our story. We appreciate it more than you know.