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Five Reasons Why Public Funding for IVF Matters to Maternal Health
Five Reasons Why Public Funding for In Vitro Fertilization Matters to Maternal Health: 1. The emotional and physical stress of infertility is magnified by the financial stress of having to figure out how to pay for in vitro fertilization. Infertile people often have to find $10,000 or more to pay for IVF. In many provinces in Canada IVF is not covered by provincial health care plans. In fact Quebec is the only province in which full funding for IVF exists. The impact of health care stress, compounded by financial stress, is devastating for the entire family. [tweetthis]Infertile people often have to find $10,000 or more to pay for IVF…
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Five Ways to Pass the Two Week Wait IVF #infertility
The two week wait. Cue ominous music. In infertility terms the two week wait is a suspenseful, frustrating, stressful time. It’s the two week wait IVF or IUI. After what is often months, and sometimes years of treatment the two week wait is one of the final hurdles and it can be a frustrating time. Here are some ideas to pass that time without going stir crazy. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock Anyone who has struggled to conceive and undergone fertility or infertility treatment such as IVF or IUI knows the torture of the two week wait. The two week wait IVF is bad enough without adding the stressful factors of…
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Taryn and Tyler’s Infertility Story – #abhc4ivf
This is the story of Taryn and Tyler, both members of Generations of Hope infertility patient advocacy group, in Alberta. It is the story of how a girl Taryn, learned at the age of 14 that she didn’t have a uterus and would need extraordinary measures to help her become a parent, if ever she wished to have a family. There are too many stories of patients in Alberta with health conditions that have led to infertility. And yet this province remains one without any financial support for in vitro fertilization, which is one of the most effective but costly measures to help couples conceive. What hits me the hardest…
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Infertility Community Reacts to IVF Funding Announcement for Ontario #ivf4ON #onpoli
Ontario’s infertility community reacted with many emotions this week to news that IVF will soon be funded. That’s long awaited for many who took two or three jobs and sometimes used credit cards and second mortgages to be able to pay for health care treatment needed to get the health care treatment prescribed. Last Thursday, Ontario’s Minister of Health and Longterm Care Deb Matthews announced that public funding would be made available for in vitro fertilization. IVF funding is part of the draft budget officially. The funding will take place starting in 2015. An advisory committee or board will be appointed to help roll the program out. There will be…
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The Many Faces of Infertility #Abhc4ivf #abpoli
What does infertility look like? You might be surprised. Very often someone you know has already been struggling with infertility. Many times there are underlying medical issues that contribute to infertility. You might be surprised to know that in all likelihood someone on your street has intimate experience with struggling to conceive. One in 6 people struggle with infertility. Take a moment to think about that. What does infertility look like? Sometimes it’s a couple who may never know the cause of their infertility. Sometimes infertility is a young married person like Danielle who learns at 25 they cannot conceive a child. Sometimes the face of infertility looks a lot…
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Support #OHIP4IVF #onpoli #WordlessWednesday
This may soon be within reach for more Ontario people. 1 in 6 couples struggle with infertility. The prescribed course of care in order to conceive is often IVF. But IVF is not currently covered in Ontario or Alberta or BC. It often carries a price tag of $10 to 13,000 so many couples can’t afford the health care they need in order to conceive. In Fact IVF is funded only in Quebec. Manitoba has a tax credit. So this news means infertile people in Ontario might soon find this within their reach. A draft budget leaked this week indicates there may be funding for IVF, in vitro fertilization, in…
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Five Free Infertility and Fertility Apps
Fertility apps and infertility apps are a great way to track ovulation and reproductive health. Here are five free fertility apps that will help at any stage of your fertility or infertility journey. When you are struggling with infertility or trying to conceive you need a huge toolkit of resources just to get through the journey. Knowledge is power, right? Luckily power and knowledge in the age of Google are right at your finger tips. Lately numerous press releases regarding the latest and greatest fertility and infertility apps have been flooding my inbox here at thrifty momma’s tips, so I thought I’d take a peek at a few and share…
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Five Creative Advocacy Ideas For Non Profits – #ivf4on #onpoli
My regular readers know I have been working with numerous non profits and charities to build their profiles on social media. I am community manager for Conceivable Dreams, the Ontario patient group advocating for better awareness and access to fertility treatments, and for Generations of Hope in Calgary. Conceivable Dreams has had some brilliant ideas over the last two years and their name/ brand as a non profit is extremely well known now, especially on social media. I am proud to have been part of their team. When we started we had about 50 followers on Twitter and we have grown authentically and organically to 2000. But the real story…
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What Makes EEVA Special? #EEVA1stBC
Imagine that you are one of the one in six people of reproductive age who struggles with infertility. Very often the medically recommended course of action is in vitro fertilization. The procedure itself can be costly. And like any medical treatment, you want to be sure you are making the best decision for your personal situation, your family. You want the best. Infertility Treatment in BC Luckily if you live in British Columbia you have some remarkable fertility clinics to choose from and some amazing talented award-winning doctors like Dr. Sonya Kashyap, medical director of @GenesisIVFBC. Kashyap was mentored by Celine Dion’s fertility doctor, Dr. Zev Rosenwaks during her competitive fellowship in reproductive medicine…
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When It Takes a Community to Fund Your Family #ohip4ivf #onpoli
This post was written by one of the members of Conceivable Dreams. I am community manager for the group. By Ashley Bulley They say it takes an entire community to raise a family; in our case it took an entire community to afford one. My husband Adrian Arbos and I were married young. We started trying to conceive when I was 23. We’d been married for five years and we were ready to start a family. But, we couldn’t. We tried. We did all the tests to determine why we were infertile and eventually we discovered that a surgery my husband had as a baby for hernia repair had actually left…