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Five Reasons IVF Funding Matters to BC #IVF4BC
It’s time for BC infertility patients to have accessible, affordable fertility treatment. What does that look like? Well, an IVF funding program can take many forms. A tax credit, a full round of funding, or a grant. In fact there are numerous different IVF funding models in place in four Canadian provinces. But BC infertility patients currently have no IVF funding program. That means BC infertility patients are worse off than many others living in Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick. There are currently four provinces in Canada that offer a fertility funding program for infertility patients. But, BC sadly is not one of those. Here are five reasons why IVF Funding Matters to…
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Zambia Fellowship – Preparing For The Journey #VaccinesWork #travel
I’m sitting in a travel clinic getting a typhoid shot and a prescription for anti-malarial pills. Today this is what work looks like as I prepare to visit Zambia in October. It’s a Tuesday morning and I am talking typhoid, Twinrix, safety precautions, Canadian embassies and Malaria. Not my average day in the office. A few weeks ago I learned that I was one of the lucky journalists who received a Fellowship with the UN Foundation and an advocacy group called Shot@Life. Together with 2 other bloggers and a doctor with a regular column in a US newspaper, I will travel to Zambia. The itinerary is evolving, but it mostly looks like…
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Ontario’s IVF Funding Program Makes a Merry Christmas for Infertility Patients #IVF4ON
Ontario’s IVF Funding Program It’s a hopeful and Merry Christmas for Ontario infertility patients. Ontario’s promise to create an IVF funding program became reality this week with the announcement that 50 clinics throughout Ontario will now be offering a funded IVF (in vitro fertilization) cycle. That’s a Happy Holiday announcement for the many infertility patients in Ontario who have been struggling to access affordable infertility treatment necessary to help them start a family. It’s been several long years since a group of Ontario infertility patients, called Conceivable Dreams, started advocating for reinstatement of IVF funding. With Ontario’s IVF funding program there are now four provinces that offer some contribution to the…
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Five Questions And Answers About Ontario’s IVF Public Funding Commitment #Ohip4ivf #onpoli
Some of the members of Conceivable Dreams Infertility patients in Ontario have come so far in two years. Two years ago most infertile people in Ontario struggled, took out second mortgages and sometimes worked three jobs to pay for the in vitro fertilization. In vitro fertilization was only covered by the Ontario health care system for one condition – bilateral tubal obstruction. That condition impacts only a very small percentage of females diagnosed with infertility. Now Ontario infertility patients have a commitment of public funding for one round of IVF. That’s a huge deal for all Ontario infertility patients wondering how to pay for in vitro fertilization. But Ontario’s IVF…
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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…