After losing both of her fallopian tubes to back-to-back ectopic pregnancies that occurred only one year apart, Kinsey Drawbaugh only had one viable option if she wanted to have a biological child.
“IVF was the only possible way for me to conceive safely,” she told IW Features.
In January 2020, Drawbaugh suffered an ectopic pregnancy in her right fallopian tube, resulting in an emergency surgery and the loss of that tube. In January 2021, her doctors found yet another ectopic pregnancy—this time in her left fallopian tube. She underwent emergency surgery again, and lost her left fallopian tube.
“I was ultimately forced to choose between IVF, adoption, surrogacy or not having a child,” Drawbaugh said.
Like many couples who long for and dream of having children of their own, Drawbaugh and her husband Chance chose in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Today, Drawbaugh’s daughter, Anna, is 4-years-old and preparing to start pre-kindergarten. It’s a bittersweet milestone—one that Drawbaugh worried she’d never get to experience as she underwent IVF.
Though IVF turns countless families’ dreams into reality, the process itself is grueling. Drawbaugh’s successful pregnancy required nearly a year and a half of physically demanding treatments, emotional and mental endurance, and tens of thousands of dollars. It’s a battle many Americans now face in a worsening fertility crisis.
That’s why the Trump administration has made expanding access to fertility care a priority. Alongside broader efforts to improve IVF accessibility, the administration’s TrumpRx initiative is also lowering the cost of a wide range of commonly prescribed fertility medications by allowing patients to purchase them at prices more comparable to those offered in other developed countries. Through agreements with manufacturer EMD Serono, medications Gonal-F, Cetrotide, Ovidrel, and more––which are used in an estimated 70-80% of IVF cycles––are now available at lower prices. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services even estimate savings of up to $2,200 per cycle on medication alone.
For families like Drawbaugh’s, those savings could make a monumental difference.
“Emotionally and financially, IVF was draining,” she said. “The number of appointments, lab draws, ultrasounds, procedures, and medications were all so demanding, and with the closest fertility clinic being over an hour away from our home, it was a very demanding and draining chapter for us.”
Drawbaugh understood IVF would be expensive before she ever stepped into a fertility clinic.
“I had researched it myself online as much as I could,” she recalled. “I knew it would be thousands of dollars out of pocket.”
Even with tireless research under her belt, the total price tag was quite staggering. According to Drawbaugh, she spent approximately $50,000 in total, as medications alone were approximately $4,000 each cycle, and they had to do two cycles to conceive Anna.
Those medication costs were only one piece of the puzzle, as countless appointments, laboratory tests, ultrasounds, procedures, and travel contributed to the financial strain. Drawbaugh and her husband also faced the emotionally daunting task of administering the injections themselves.
“It was overwhelming because my husband and I were having to draw and inject the medications ourselves at home, so I was incredibly intimidated,” she admitted. “Knowing that we spent that much on medications and that we had to get it right the first time was a lot of pressure!”
Luckily, Drawbaugh works for a health center, and she reminisced fondly on how one of the pharmacists there was kind enough to walk them through the first set of injections.
Although Drawbaugh and her husband were fortunate enough to be able to afford two IVF cycles, the financial pressure was always on.
“It added a lot of stress, of course,” she said. “Thankfully my husband and I were in the financial place to be able to pay for medications for the two rounds.”
On average, undergoing two to three rounds of IVF is considered normal, with younger patients often needing fewer cycles to successfully conceive. But it’s not unheard of for older patients to need as many as six rounds.
“To be honest, we didn’t discuss the possibility of a third round if the second one was not successful, so I don’t know if we would have moved forward with that or not,” Drawbaugh said. “It felt like we were putting all our ‘eggs in one basket’ each cycle to where we didn’t have the capacity to even think about the cycle not working.”
Instead of dwelling on the potential of failure, however, Drawbaugh and her husband concentrated on reaching each milestone.
“We honestly didn’t talk about ‘What if this doesn’t work?’ We focused on getting through the next step of treatment and remained hopeful. I truly did not think about it not working. It would have been a huge financial burden if we would have had to try a third round,” she admitted.
For Drawbaugh, even a few thousand dollars in savings would have eased the burden.
“It would have made a big difference, of course,” Drawbaugh said of the administration’s TrumpRx initiative. “For any family undergoing IVF/fertility treatments, that would be a beneficial decrease in costs to be able to be used elsewhere.”
Though the medications, injections, appointments, procedures, and brutal waiting periods are in the past, the weight of the process has not left Drawbaugh. Drawbaugh told IW Features she hopes people who have never experienced infertility understand that IVF is far more complicated, and of course far more costly, than many may assume.
“A lot of people think that it is covered by insurance and it is an easier process because they think the doctors can take the mother’s egg, father’s sperm, an embryo forms, you pick the gender of your baby if necessary, and then it’s transferred to the uterus… easy peasy right?”
According to Drawbaugh, that’s simply not the case.
“Sure, you can research the costs of the procedures that are needed for baseline testing, but there are so many other procedures, extra labs, testing that could be added that you did not consider,” she said. “The fertility clinics require you to pay each step in full; you cannot do payment plans or pay later. You pay up front at each appointment.”
Then comes the waiting game every IVF patient knows all too well: the 10-day wait. Ten days after an embryo transfer is the waiting period before you’re able to take a pregnancy test. Drawbaugh’s second transfer was on her husband’s birthday, Nov. 8, 2021, and when her medical providers drew labs around 7:30 a.m., they told her they’d call with the results that afternoon.
“Chance made it very clear to the office staff that they were to call him for the results, not me. He didn’t want me to have to receive the news alone, good or bad. He wanted to be the one to give me the results,” she recalled. “He always beat me home from work; I walked in on pins and needles. He gave me a big hug and told me it worked! It was one of the best days of our lives!”
Looking back, Drawbaugh encourages couples facing infertility to prepare financially if they can, but not to lose hope.
“If you can financially bear it or are able to make the frugal lifestyle changes and are able to prepare as much as possible prior to beginning, do it. It is worth it! Our daughter is a miracle,” she said.
She also stressed that infertility must be understood for what it is––a medical condition, not necessarily a lifestyle choice.
“Infertility is not elective,” she said. “Those of us who struggle with infertility, it is not a choice. It is a complex medical condition, and there should at least be some type of assistance or coverage (even partial coverage) offered under specified diagnosis codes or confirmed conditions by a physician.”
With fertility care on the Trump administration’s radar, many Americans now benefit from assistance. But reducing the financial burden cannot heal the emotional scars that come with infertility. For women who find themselves questioning their self-worth because they struggle to, or cannot conceive at all naturally, Drawbaugh offers a message of hope.
“Infertility is nothing to be embarrassed about, and as a woman, it does not make you less of a woman,” she stressed. “Also, if you know someone who is struggling with infertility, don’t offer unreciprocated advice. It just adds to the immense pressure when our minds are already in a jumbled mess. Just love them and ask how you can support them in the best way.”
