Infertility, Fertility Treatment & your Career
5 Tips on Finding Harmony between Family Building & your Job.
When I reached out to MyVitro founder Danielle Hall as one IVF warrior to another, I wanted to thank her for the products she’s designed & the way she’s shared tips for those of us who are type A and struggling with infertility. After we got to talking, I told her that I’d love to share her story & sage advice with my clients, and she quickly agreed to write this guest blog post. I’m really excited to share her words, so I’ll let her take it away.
If you are anything like me, the journey to parenthood isn’t what you expected. I thought the hardest part of balancing my career with growing my family would be negotiating my maternity leave. Little did I know that the journey would start years before I had a baby, and present countless obstacles between getting (and staying) pregnant, and being successful in my career.
The first year my husband and I tried to have a baby, I miscarried three times. Then we went through months of testing to determine why we were struggling with recurrent pregnancy loss. And then we went on to do multiple rounds of IVF. At the time, I was juggling a career in sales at a large Silicon Valley software company and realized a lot of people (including me) kept their fertility treatment a secret due to the stigma tied to infertility. Consequently, this created a huge gap in the resources those going through treatment needed.
I wanted to help change that, which led me to start my company, MyVitro, helping those going through treatment take back control of their IVF injections and meds.
Throughout our RPL struggle and time doing IVF, I learned some things along the way. Read on to see some tips I wish I had known before starting my journey to parenthood, and how to navigate treatment while balancing your career.
1. It’s Ok to Think About Your Fertility Before You Are Ready to Start a Family
For many of us, we don’t start thinking about our fertility until we start trying for a family. Understanding your body, hormones and fertility levels BEFORE you want to start a family will allow you to make enlightened decisions when the time comes.
2. Get Familiar with Your Employer Offered Benefits
While some employee sponsored insurance plans cover family building avenues like IVF, Adoption or egg freezing, most of them do not. If you know you might need fertility treatment, make sure to review your benefits in detail, and keep this in mind when changing jobs as benefits vary dramatically from one employer to another.
3. Be Prepared for the Investment
Most Insurance plans don’t cover IVF, so you may end up investing $20-$30k per round depending on where you live. Freezing your eggs will be a similar cost, between $10-$15k plus egg storage.
4. If you Can, Lighten Up Your Schedule
Fertility testing and treatment are time consuming, so the less you have on your plate, the better. IVF typically includes injections everyday at home, frequent trips to the lab for blood work and recurring visits to your fertility clinic for transvaginal ultrasounds. If you know you have a lot of business-related travel coming up, you might consider delaying your IVF cycle. Talking to your boss in advance about time off for doctor’s visits and other appointments will help reduce stress during treatment.
5. Find Control Where You Can - Get Organized
Fertility treatment has a tendency to make most of us feel out of control. Injections, the cost and what is on the line adds up to a lot of pressure and added stress. Keeping your IVF meds organized will give you a sense of control and confidence in your protocol. My company, MyVitro makes an IVF Support Kit that has everything you need to get your meds organized and begin injections with faith in yourself.
Danielle Hall is a passionate advocate for infertility community, driven to provide practical solutions for people undergoing fertility treatment. With a previous career in B2B marketing and sales, she is following her dream to make a difference through MyVitro.
MyVitro offers people undergoing IVF peace of mind through fertility treatment organizers and accessories.
Friends, I am so grateful to Danielle, for sharing these tips.
This is absolutely advice I’d have been so grateful to have when I first began living that Infertility life several years ago, and I’m honored for the opportunity to share it with you, and connect ya’ll with MyVitro.
**Also! Just a reminder to go checkout the products over at MyVitro, and use the code HEARTFELT to save 10%
