It is amazing to think back to the fertility clinics you visited 20 years ago. Becoming more and more stressed about you and your husband’s options for ever having children, it seemed like the fertility clinics were your last possible opportunity for having children of your own. In fact, you had already started the process of looking into adoption opportunities the day that you decided to try the doctor’s recommendation for the artificial insemination process.
And a few weeks later, you were canceling the adoption meetings, not because it would never be an option for your family, but because you had just received a call from the center for reproductive medicine saying that you were, in fact, pregnant. Any adoptions plans would definitely be on hold for now anyway.
You get frustrated when you hear people say that “good things come to those who wait” whenever they find out that you used a fertility center to get pregnant with your first child. Frustrated because although you ended up being able to conceive, you still know of many patiently waiting friends who have not yet become pregnant.
Unfortunately, many of those friends may have not gotten pregnant because their health insurance did not cover the treatments that you were able to receive. You were one of the fortunate ones who 20 years ago had a health plan that helped cover the majority of the fertility center fees.
Luckily, now an increasing number of states are requiring this coverage. The current list of states that have passed laws requiring all insurance plans to cover some kind of fertility treatment includes:
- Arkansas
- California
- Connecticut
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Montana
- New Jersey
- New York
- Ohio
- Rhode Island
- Texas
- West Virginia
If, however, you live in a state that does not require an insurance coverage, you may find yourself trying to make a decision to go ahead with treatment. And, if you are approaching your 40s you are likely feeling more pressure to make a fast decision. Since women are the most fertile between the ages of 20 and 24, any one looking to conceive after that age will start to see their odds of success declining. For example, women between the ages of 29 and 33, even with functioning reproductive systems, only have a 20% to 25% chance of getting pregnant in a given month. By the age of 40, statistics indicate approximately 40% of those women who wished to get pregnant will have done so.
Where are you at in your life? Are you someone who already has children or you someone who is still struggling to find a way to conceive? Unfortunately, patience is not the only answer for many. For many couples, in fact, the opportunity to get pregnant completely relies on whether or not they have access to affordable and effective fertility clinics and the treatments they offer.