Megan and TJ

Meet our next advocates from Brighton, TN:
Hey y’all! My name is Megan Rich and my husband is TJ. We met in college and got married in November 2015. We knew 3 years ago we were ready to start a family and figured it would be fairly easy to get pregnant.. after 3 years of TTC and multiple rounds of testing, we were told we have less than a 10% chance of getting pregnant naturally. That was a gut punch neither of us were ready for. We were told IVF was our best chance of having a family. 

You’re told so many people do IVF and you hear about your friend’s sister who did it and had twins, etc. Everyone makes it sound like a quick and easy fix. However, no one ever talks publicly about the money part. On top of the stress that comes from infertility, you’re told your chance of having a child can range from $15,000- $30,000. Most people don’t have that kind of money laying around, let alone money to do multiple rounds of IVF if the first round fails. 

The reason it’s so expensive is because Fertility insurance is a optional “add on” that employers can choose to offer or not. Most employers don’t offer it, and TN law doesn’t require employers to offer it.. which means fertility treatments are 100% out of pocket for most. 

While TJ and I are grateful to be starting our IVF journey this month, it’s hard to shake the thought that money is literally dictating who can have a child and who can’t. And that needs to change.