Campaign Story

My name is Nguyen, my wife Emily and I have been trying to conceive since 2018. We’ve been married since September 2016, but due to being in the Air Force we were geographically separated due to work. I was also hit by a corrosive and cancerous chemical back in July 2016 called Hydrazine, which in animal studies causes lowered sperm count in males. Though being hit with hydrazine doesn’t constitute me being ill enough to receive medical financial assistance even though my low sperm count was caused by a work related incident. Moving forward once we were allowed to stay together we’ve been trying to conceive. At first we thought I was a female side problem so we started seeing specialist for my wife’s extreme menstrual pains back in South Carolina in 2018. The doctor there advised my wife about getting and IUD or starting birth control to stabilize the pain and menstrual cycle. But it seemed to be counter productive to us trying to conceive. So we went on the path of, “if it happens it happens”. Later down the road me being a male, I let my Ego take over and refused to get checked, subconsciously thinking it was my wife’s issue. 2020 I’m now stationed in South Korea, we went to do a sperm analysis test and it showed that I was boarder line infertile due to varicose vein in my genital region. I felt ashamed thought I didn’t get checked sooner. We’ve been going to a fertility clinic the past 4 years, in 2023 I was having to travel 2 hours every 3 days to Seoul for hormone injections, fighting with my supervision with my medical concerns. As I was getting hormone injections my sperm analysis tests were improving just enough for an IVF procedure. So we continued with the hormone treatment til my analysis test was eligible for IUI. Sadly being in the Air Force my income isn’t that great and our insurance company Tricare does not cover any IUI or IVF procedures. Starting February this year my wife and I have undergone 3 rounds of IUI, 15 times I have to inject my wife with a medicine that burns her insides. 3 times I get to watch my wife break down because the IUI process failed. This has been taking a huge toll on us mentally and financially. Our fertility clinic is pushing us to do IVF, but we currently do not have the funds to do so. We don’t live a luxurious life, and yet I feel like I live paycheck to pay check here due to the multiple uninsured medical procedures we have to go through. I’m not sure if this would actually get anyone’s attention, I just don’t know where else to turn to for financial help. Military Tricare refuses to help its service members to start a family but would spend millions on fixing something that doesn’t need fixing.