BOUNTIFUL — Megan Worthington wants to have a baby. More than anything, she would like her husband to become the great father she knows he will be.
Things have not gone smoothly, however. Since 2022, they have walked along the in vitro fertilization path together, an expensive journey that has caused them to wonder how they could continue to afford the treatment.
Her sisters-in-law suggested they raise money through an online fundraising campaign.
“I normally do things on my own and I don’t usually ask for help, but this seemed like another way to raise whatever we can to pay for the treatments,” said Megan Worthington, who lives in Bountiful. “We’ve paid attention to interest rates because we’ve thought about taking a second mortgage. But this seemed to be something that could work.”
The Worthingtons set up an account on GoFundMe*, originally asking for $8,000.
They are not alone. Between 2011 and 2015, 1,602 GoFundMe campaigns were created specifically to raise funds for IVF treatments. GoFundMe reports that more than $3 million has been raised for these campaigns.
Although GoFundMe does not publicize a listing of IVF campaigns by state, the company confirmed that couples in Payson, Springville and American Fork have also created campaigns to raise funds for IVF treatments.
I want to be able to provide that amazing life-growing experience, but I want to accomplish this before we turn 40.
This is understandable, given the costs. The average cost for one IVF round of treatment in the U.S. is between $15,000 and $30,000, according to the Stanford for Economic Policy Research.
Insurance rarely covers the cost of any fertility treatments, meaning that unless a couple has an extra tens of thousands of dollars available to them, they have to find ways to raise the money.
What makes IVF even more difficult to handle for many women is not only the cost of the treatment, but also the fact that there is no guarantee that they will have a baby in the end. In other words, a couple may go through the various rounds of treatments — creating embryos outside of the woman’s body and placing them in the uterus — without a guaranteed formation of a fetus that will lead to a baby.
The Pew Research Center continues to report that the number of women who use IVF services continues to increase, despite the costs, which also continue to rise. The organization states that one out of every 10 women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 44 has received some form of fertility assistance, including advice, referrals and medical procedures.
Researchers at Pew and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have investigated the connection between women having children later in life and the growing use of fertility treatments. What researchers do know is that one of every 42 babies born in the U.S. is a product of IVF.
Seeking fertility treatments can also be a struggle in a state like Utah, where families have more children than the national average. Women like Worthington, and others in Utah seeking IVF treatments, have found the entire endeavor frustrating, sometimes causing questions of self-worth and more. They often feel misunderstood by others, including some family members.
All of this to say, this process for couples can be exhausting emotionally and for the women, physically, as well. Having friends and family who support the couple is important, as well as considering other ways to parent.
“I really want to be able to give my husband not just the experience of being a father and watching his child grow up, but also the different growth stages of pregnancy from hearing the first heartbeat, to the first kick and alien belly roll,” Worthington wrote on the GoFundMe page. “I want to be able to provide that amazing life-growing experience, but I want to accomplish this before we turn 40.”
Worthington has a 13-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and has witnessed her husband loving the girl as his own. They have also considered adopting a child through the foster system.
They want to be parents. And even though the path to get there has been a struggle, they know it will happen somehow. For now, they’ll focus on raising the money and see what happens.
“I think I can only go through this until I’m 40,” Worthington said. “We’ll keep trying until then. My sisters-in-law have been really supportive and they’ve come up with things like having a garage sale. And I think the GoFundMe campaign can be very useful. This was a last-minute decision we made a month ago. This whole thing has been a roller coaster.”
*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited into the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.