Hi friends, we’re really glad you’re here 🤍
This week we dedicated some time to reading fine print on funding options for fertility treatment. We went looking for a straightforward list of organizations that give grants for IVF, and found that the picture is a bit more complicated.
It's also more hopeful than we expected. There are more funds available than most people realize, and knowing how these programs actually work is the difference between guessing and applying well. Several deadlines are open right now, which is part of why we wanted to get this to you this week.
Let’s get into it.
In this Issue We'll Cover...
Applying for an IVF Grant
In the fall of 2025, two foundations ran a joint grant cycle. They received more than 450 applications and funded five families. That is roughly one in ninety odds of receiving the grant, and it is also one of the only acceptance rates anyone in fertility philanthropy publishes. So we read the published eligibility rules, fee schedules and application requirements for about seventeen programs to find out what they ask of the people applying.
What we’ll cover:
Which programs charge a fee to apply
How to navigate the income and other requirements for each application
A calendar of fall deadlines that are still open, and five questions worth answering before you pay a fee
👉 Read: Applying for an IVF Grant
The Reading Room: Top Stories of the Week
Here are our top finance-related article picks from around the web this week:
Who Does 11 Rounds of IVF? Me, Apparently. (Slate) Melissa Dahl follows several families through the arithmetic of repeated cycles: $30,000 out of pocket here, $60,000 on a credit card there, a $40,000 lifetime insurance cap that ran out. The financial detail is unusually specific, and so is the emotional register. One woman describes the decision as impossible to make on finances alone, "and it feels like that shouldn't be a factor, right?"
The Predatory Lenders in the Operating Room (The American Prospect) Bryce Covert on how medical credit cards became a standard front-desk offering. The reporting that stayed with us: Synchrony made $3.7 billion in interest and fees from CareCredit in a single year, and one patient's $2,000 balance would take fourteen years to clear at minimum payments. Useful context for anyone who has been handed an application mid-appointment.
Some Families to Get Up to $15,000 for IVF. Here's How to Apply. (Newsweek) The most actionable thing in this week's Reading Room. Jenni Fink lays out the Stork Foundation's current cycle, which closes September 30 with no application fee, alongside a few other deadlines. If you read one item here with a calendar open, make it this one.
Alternative Approaches to Funding Fertility Treatment
Refund and guarantee programs, medical credit cards, fertility-specific lenders, the employer benefit you may already have and its fine print, the manufacturer discount programs that will not publish their terms, and crowdfunding. Each one read the way it deserves to be read, which is as a financial product priced by people who know more about your odds of success than you do.
If you enjoyed this issue of Path to Parenthood, be sure to share with anyone you know who is currently on a TTC journey ❤
