After in vitro fertilization led to a miscarriage, Lindsay found herself with thousands of dollars’ worth of fertility drugs she could no longer use.
She was lucky: Insurance covered most of her costs. But for the majority of people, fertility care is not covered. So Lindsay didn’t want to waste her drugs.
“I knew people were paying a lot for these,” she said. “It seemed sort of criminal to throw them away.”
Lindsay and the other women living in the U.S. interviewed for this article asked that only their first names be used because it’s against federal law to possess or consume drugs not prescribed to you.
Lindsay looked for fellow fertility patients who might want her medications. She found them on social media. On Instagram, patients used hashtags to covertly signal they had fertility drugs for offer, or that they were in need. On Facebook, Listservs and Discord groups, people swapped (and sometimes sold) leftover medications.
As more women postpone having children until later in life, infertility has become a growing problem, with the World Health Organization estimating that about one in six people globally are now impacted. The global fertility market was worth about $35.2 billion last year and is expected to grow to $84 billion by 2028, according to market research firm Imarc. In the U.S., procedures like IVF and egg freezing have steadily risen each year save for a dip during the COVID lockdowns of 2020. Procedures rose more than 26% in 2021, the most recent year available.
Infertility treatments can be expensive. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, one round of IVF treatments averages more than $12,000 in the U.S. Medications alone can easily top $5,000. Yet only 43% of large U.S. employers offered IVF coverage in 2022 and most states do not require private insurers to offer fertility benefits.
It’s a quirk of fertility care that patients often wind up with leftover…
Read the full article here
