This week’s Missouri Health Talks is a collaboration with Vox Magazine.
Hilary and Chad Hardesty have been trying to have a baby for more than seven years now, and while their doctors tell them they’re good candidates for IVF, the enormous price tag on the procedure has been a challenge for the couple.
They spoke with reporter Sarah Hallam about their efforts to raise money for IVF, in part, through their website, https://hardestyhouseinfertility.com.
You can read more about Hilary and Chad’s experiences with IVF in the March issue of Vox Magazine and online: What does it cost to undergo IVF?
Missouri Health Talks gathers Missourians’ stories of access to healthcare in their own words. You can view more conversations at missourihealthtalks.org.
Hilary Hardesty: So, we were trying on our own for a couple, probably a year or two, before we started going to the doctors and finding out that there might be something that would prevent us from getting pregnant on our own.
And so, then we ended up going to an infertility specialist, and then to another and then to another looking for a different answer than IVF is the only way you're going to be able to have a baby together because that was not financially feasible for us.
Also, just the concept of going into debt to have a baby with how much it costs to actually go through the hospital and have, deliver the baby, but then also how much it costs to raise a baby – going into debt in order to do that doesn't didn't feel responsible, with the potential for it to not succeed.
So, the potential to go into that debt, have a failed IVF and then be saddled with that debt and move along with that is sounds just devastating
So, we went to three different doctors and we got the same answer from all of them that the cheaper intervention would be basically throwing away our money because with our specific situation, it was it wouldn't work for us to be able to try the more affordable interventions.
But finally, when we had that confirmation that that was the answer, we realized that fundraising was going to be probably the only way we were going to get anywhere close to that number – being able to afford IVF.
And so, Chad has been amazing at setting up all of the fundraising opportunities. Establishing hardestyhouseinfertility.com, and supporting me through all of the crafting in order to sell crafts to raise money for the IVF fund.
He even set up a support group through our website or through Facebook, Hardesty House Infertility Support, so that we could provide some support to others going through these same experiences.
