Why Fertility Treatments Are Not Like Double D Breasts

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Yesterday my husband and I discussed the financial impact of this cycle. I am out of work, after all. We looked at the numbers, did the math, and if this cycle is not successful, we will have to put things on hold for a while until I get a job and start padding the bank account again.

I have seen posted on numerous blogs the huge financial toll IF treatments have taken (as though the emotional toll weren't enough). Each of us uses whatever resources we have, whether it includes bank loans, savings accounts, family inheritances, second mortgages or credit cards. We struggle to find the money for each cycle.

Insurance often covers so little. This is such a huge issue and it strikes me as being so wrong! I believe the position I take is one of reasonableness. I don't think insurance should have to pay for someone like the Oct.omom who already had 6 kids and now has 8 more. It shouldn't be like a shopping spree for babies. But I firmly believe that insurance should pay, when medically indicated, for an adult to have a child. I would include as medically indicated things like male factor problems, endo, ttc unsuccessfully for a year, same sex partners, and age 35 or greater. They could cap payment based on the number of live births to prevent the Oct.omom problem.

But for crying out loud, having a child is simply not the same as other non-covered elective procedures -- such as surgery to increase breast size from an A cup to a DD cup. Having a family should not be put on par with cosmetic surgery, despite the fact that being being childless, much like having A cup breasts, is not a life threatening condition. That said, when someone is disfigured in an accident, even if the disfigurement isn't life-threatening, insurance usually pays to make the person look as normal as possible, including paying for plastic surgery.

Well, for those of us desperately wanting a child, we simply are trying to attain what we feel is a normal life! A family life. I would love to see a federal mandate requiring insurance companies to pay for fertility treatments.

I'm not holding my breath though. Self-induced asphyxia is probably not covered either.
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