I found out the answer about five years ago in a very personal way.
At the time, I was Director of Product Marketing at SolarCity. I was in my early thirties, focused on my career, but also ready to start a family. Little did I know that it was going to cost me $100,000. The same cost as a Tesla.
The pain, isolation, and sheer expense of six rounds of IVF and three miscarriages -- followed by the intense joy of welcoming my daughter into the world -- led me to ultimately leave SolarCity to found my current company Future Family.
We are using some of the same ideas that I worked on in the solar industry to address access to clean energy -- now to address access to fertility care. For example, we provide financing for women and couples so that they can choose affordable monthly payments instead of a big upfront cost. We’re also providing a service platform in place of a DIY approach.
Future Family is the first company to bring together financing, technology, and concierge care in an easy-to-use online platform. Our comprehensive service platform provides women with the care, information, and financial support needed to navigate their fertility journey, instead of using the confusing and isolated DIY approach.
My hope is Future Family can revolutionize access to fertility care in the same way SolarCity helped revolutionize access to clean energy for many families.
More women than ever are waiting until their 30s to start having children. While this can have benefits, including the opportunity to focus on career and relationships, it has a big downside when it comes to fertility.
For millennials, it presents a looming healthcare crisis. Without health insurance coverage for fertility and savings to support the high cost of care, fertility is on track to become the most pressing stressor and health expense for this generation.
It would be different if women could plan ahead for their future family – and get support.
Today there is nowhere to go.
In fact, women who seek care are often turned away either because they can’t afford it or the insurance rules don’t support preventative care and fertility testing.
We’re changing that with access to our concierge care platform where women can ask questions and get answers, sign up for a free video consult with a fertility expert, and order the first Fertility Age Test™
I’m encouraging every woman to take advantage of these new services and start planning for her future – instead of waiting until it may be too late.
My daughter is now almost two and a half. She loves to sing and dance, play hide and seek, and wake me up in the morning by tickling me and saying “wakey wakey mommy.” I can’t imagine life without her, yet I know that it’s only because I was lucky enough to afford IVF that she is here.
I hope that by sharing my story we can engage more women in this discussion, and I’m grateful to all the women who shared their stories so openly with me. It inspired me to take the leap and found Future Family.