She thought pregnancy would happen naturally. Then health challenges, multiple miscarriages, and a changing body made fertility care part of the future she had to fight for.
When Anne imagined becoming a parent, she assumed it would happen the way so many of us are taught to expect: decide the time is right, try to conceive, and welcome a child.
Then her health changed.
As her body changed, so did the future she had pictured. What had once felt like a natural next step began to feel uncertain. After multiple miscarriages, she and her partner faced a painful realization: conceiving without medical help was becoming less and less likely.
There is a particular kind of grief in that moment. It is not only the loss of a pregnancy. It is the loss of the uncomplicated path you thought you would have—the belief that your body would do what you had always expected it to do.
For Anne’s family, fertility care became the next step. Their journey included diagnostic testing, daily medication, 3 rounds of egg retrieval and 3 transfers and nearly $50,000 in out-of-pocket costs. At a time when they were already navigating profound uncertainty and loss, the question was not simply what care they needed. It was whether they could afford to pursue it.
With fertility care, their story continued. Anne later welcomed a daughter—and then a son.
Anne is sharing her experience for everyone who has been surprised by the distance between wanting a child and being able to conceive one. Health conditions, infertility, and pregnancy loss can change a family’s path overnight. But no one should have to abandon the hope of parenthood because medically appropriate care is excluded from their insurance coverage.
Every family deserves the chance to follow the care plan they and their clinician determine is right for them.
