Nearly every dollar Mary Delgado had was riding on one shot at IVF. Three years ago, while trying to conceive a second child with her long-time partner Joaquin Rodriguez, Delgado, who is now 35, learned she had severe endometriosis, a common cause of infertility.
“I was broken,” Delgado said. “To be told that I’ll never get pregnant again naturally. The doctor told me the only solution for you is IVF. And I knew IVF was expensive.”
In the U.S., just one round of IVF — or in vitro fertilization — costs an average of $20,000, according to Fertility IQ, a platform for patient education. It generally takes three IVF cycles for a woman to have a baby, and insurance doesn’t always cover it — putting it out of reach for many Americans and leaving others with a heavy financial burden.
Delgado relied on Medicaid after leaving her job to care for her 10-year-old son, who has a rare genetic disorder. She was aware that Medicaid wouldn’t cover IVF, and said all that ran through her mind “was the dollar sign.”
“I don’t think it’s fair, because they don’t want the poor to reproduce,” Delgado said.
