Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello Oregonians and welcome to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. If you've ever wanted to get to know your politicians personally or understand what it is they are actually doing, then you're in the right place. I'm your podcast host, Jessica Campbell.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: I'm your state representative for House District 24, Lucetta Elmer.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: This podcast is a place for you to get to know Representative Elmer both personally and professionally.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: We want Oregonians to feel connected with and educated politics. So we're so glad you've joined us on a fresh new podcast adventure as we cover all things about life and legislation.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Hi Oregonians and welcome back to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. We're so glad you've joined us and if this is your very first time, welcome. We hope you get a great way to meet Representative Elmer, get to know her more personally and get a better sense of what's going on at a state level as we talk about all things life and legislation. For those of you who've been with us for a this looks a little different. We are not sitting in the studio together.
We are doing this episode recording over zoom as you can see. And I have some incredible guests with us. I'm so thankful that you were all able to join us for this really important conversation. We are going to be talking about fertility, infertility insurance and what all of this has anything to do with state legislation. So an important topic that matters to a lot of people, a growing number of people and we're going to have some some big key points to cover in this episode. But first I would love to have everybody introduce themselves. So let's start with you, Molly.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: Hi, my name is Molly Hike. I am a native Oregonian that lives in Wilsonville, Oregon and navigated about a decade of infertility in growing our family.
And also a co founder of Oregon Fertility Advocates alongside of Stacy.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: And that leads us straight into Stacy. So Stacy, would you introduce yourself?
[00:02:05] Speaker D: Yeah. Thanks Jessica. My name is Stacy, I am based out of Eugene and I am one of the co founders of Organ Fertility Advocates along with Molly, advocating from the patient side for some changes to benefit for coverage of fertility.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: And we also have a doctor with us, Dr. Amato. Would you introduce yourself to everybody?
[00:02:24] Speaker E: Yes. Thanks Jessica. Hello everyone. I'm Paul Almado. I'm a professor at Oregon Health and Science University and a fertility doctor at Spring Fertility Portland and I've been in the field for about 30 years now and I've been working with my lovely co advocates to try and expand access to infertility treatment here in Oregon.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: And presumably everyone knows you, Representative Elmer, but would you still introduce yourself to everybody?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Yes. Lucetta Elmer, State Representative for House District 24 includes most of Yamhill County. I reside in McMinnville, which is where Jessica and I are, record this podcast session and worked on infertility policy over the last two sessions. So 2025 long session and then again in 26 short session.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: And as I understand, many people and organizations have been working towards some legislation around this for quite a long time. But for you specifically, Lucetta, this has been the last couple of years as you have since joined the legislature.
Why does this matter to you? Why would you take time to put forth a bill for anything related to infertility benefits? And I guess why should the state of Oregon care about this?
[00:03:43] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, as a legislator, I mean, we have so many topics and so many different committees that we're looking at and seeing what sort of the landscape of our state and where we could maybe try to make things a little better. So most of my policy work has been in business and, or in human services in early childhood and so education and business, which is sort of what, where I feel comfortable.
Infertility just, I mean, through many different conversations that I've had in and out of the building, I just see where this is something that's really impacting a lot of our families in Oregon who are trying to have children. And there's a big hole. There's, there's a, there's a debt dead end, you know, for, for many people who, who just can't navigate the cost or, or the path on their own. And so I decided to try and see what we could do.
Started by looking to see what other states do.
And it had some work groups around this conversation. There's a lot that we could do in Oregon. And I didn't necessarily assume my bill would pass right away, but I think it's very important to get it out there so that then we can have open the door to have these conversations. I thought that the conversations that we had in committee during this year, during the short session were great.
And Representative knows who chairs the House Committee on, on health care. You know, we, we followed up in the interim and we have had this work group going to where we can continue the conversation with the insurers and just try to navigate what 2027 will look like. But I definitely want to bring it back in 27 and get something across the finish line.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: This has been a conversation for a long, longer time even than you've Been, you know, sort of leading the charge, I think. Molly, had you told me a while back that you'd been working on this for. Was it 10 years?
[00:05:40] Speaker C: Dr. Amato and I have been and Stacy have been in the trenches for a very long time, whether it be here at the state level, also at the federal level, been working to expand access to care for a long time.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: And so I'll keep it with you for a moment. Molly, why does this matter to you?
[00:05:58] Speaker C: As I kind of started, my husband and I navigated infertility for a little over a decade before we welcomed our daughter through embryo donation and gestational surrogacy and, if you will, kissing kind of every medical type of treatment that we needed along the way. And now I have the privilege of supporting other families in the same field of work as nurse and working alongside families that are looking to expand as well. And so I see firsthand how it impacts not just our family. While our family is complete now and we have a beautiful child. It took a village to be able to have her. And now every day, when I work with patients that are navigating the same waters, if not more, that are here in Oregon, that are trying to navigate, whether that be just getting an initial diagnosis, trying to navigate what type of treatment might be for them, you know, I think sometimes that misconception around that IVF is the first step they're faced with. And so I get to have that opportunity to really see how it's impacting so many families across. Across Oregon that really just want to be able to grow and have a family.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: At this point, there are kind of two groups listening. There's the group of people who. This is their personal experience. They know about it. They're following all the acronyms you've mentioned.
[00:07:12] Speaker D: They're.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: They're nodding along. They. They know they get it. Then there's a group of people list.
This is so foreign to them. They. They are not familiar with it. They. They maybe know a little bit, maybe some things they hear in the news. You know, maybe see a couple things on social media, they might know that it's expensive, but they. There's really. That's kind of the extent of their knowledge. So maybe if we could take just a moment or two, maybe I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Amato, to quickly just define what is infertility, what are the statistics around it, maybe even some of the misconceptions.
[00:07:44] Speaker E: Sure, sure. Well, infertility, it turns out, is a very common problem, and it's thought to affect about 1 in 6 adults, or about 17.5% of the population. This is globally, and sometimes by definition, it's the inability to have a healthy live birth. And that could be for medical reasons or social reasons, or perhaps you need medical intervention to have a child. Okay. And there's different things that can cause. I would say about a third of the time there's a female factor that's contributing. A third of the time it could be a male factor that's contributing, and then a third of the time it's some combination, and we have some very effective treatments. Probably the one people are most familiar with is IVF or in vitro fertilization, which, as you said, can be expensive. But the thing about infertility is that it's a disease. It's recognized as a disease by the who, by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, but it's not treated like other diseases. For most diseases, if you have health insurance, you have coverage to treat your disease.
But infertility is kind of exceptionalized, and whether or not you have insurance depends on where you live and perhaps who your employer is. So as a provider, what I see, I see many, many people with Infert.
We have the tools to help them, but there are these access disparities in who can access the treatments. So if you're a low income person or maybe a member of the LGBTQ community, you're disproportionately affected by the fact that infertility insurance coverage is disparate in Oregon at least. So Michael and Stacy and Molly and all the advocates in Oregon, I so appreciate Representative Elmer's efforts and other legislatures to try and, you know, bring justice to this issue and try and increase access and make it more equitable for Oregonians, because they deserve that.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: I want to circle back in a moment to what does that look like? You know, what. What bill or law would be passed and how would that play out? I mean, people are constantly having questions about insurance, medical coverage, money, all of those things. But before you, you said the statistic one in six.
And if I'm correct, it wasn't that long ago, really, when the statistic was one in eight.
That's a big jump in a relatively short amount of time. And so any of you could answer this question.
Why is it increasing so much? And that's a big percentage of the population.
[00:10:40] Speaker E: You're right. It is becoming more common. I would say that two main factors are probably because people are waiting longer to have children. And we know, especially with women, there's an age related fertility decline that happens. And the second reason might be environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals, which you may have heard of, that could be affecting fertility as well. But I'll turn it over to Molly and Stacy to add more.
[00:11:08] Speaker C: Sure. I think kind of touching on that environmental piece. Outside of what I have the privilege of getting to do in the clinic, I work with first responders and active duty military as well. And while that statistic is 1 in 6, we actually see in some cases that's even higher for first responders and military members because of the environmental exposures that they face every day and just their line of work. And then we look at, you know, in Oregon specifically, especially as we're in this hot summer season and fire season in my house, we see that that's impacting families as well, just by what they do in serving the community every day in that way.
[00:11:46] Speaker D: I think you guys covered pretty much most of it there. I mean, from my, my personal history, it has to do with other reproductive diseases. So I'm one of those unlucky people that have dual factor. And so just the luck of the draw that I have severe endometriosis and my partner has a male factor component. So definitely more common, I think, than people realize. And yeah, all these other factors that we've talked about are contributing to those more well known numbers.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Well, it just makes me think we need even, even more possible bills on how do we get rid of the environmental factors and take care of those and, you know, let that lead into just healthier bodies, healthier lives, better healthcare, more affordable healthcare, good insurance coverage, all the things, you know. So, Rep. Elmer, if you could just cover all of that in the next session, that would be great.
[00:12:40] Speaker C: No pressure.
[00:12:42] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Because we know it's so easy.
[00:12:46] Speaker D: Right.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Even if we did have all of the correct answers and 100% alignment and everyone moving in the same direction, the legislature moves at a snail's pace. So there's that, too.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: That actually is a good transition. Where are you right now in this journey to try and get a bill across the finish line? We have, we've talked about how that works in previous episodes and there are many, many, many, many steps. So for anybody who's still confused on how does a bill become a law, highly recommend checking out some of our previous conversations.
But where are we as of Today,
[00:13:25] Speaker B: this interim 2026, working on crafting what the 2027 bill will look like.
So still still in the midst of some work groups and trying to gather information from all the different players in this field. Obviously, the insurance folks, they have a lot of questions, and there's. There's flags for them around this. So trying to navigate that, trying to understand what it could look like. You know, in my last bill for this, for 2026, we had crafted the family building fund. So it wasn't just a general draw on the, it wasn't just a draw on the. On the general budget, but trying to navigate how it would play into our general tax structure and get some real numbers for that. Because part of crafting the legislature around it is also putting dollars to what will this bill cost if it truly goes into effect. So being able to have some concrete numbers on that, and there's lots of different ideas. I mean, one option that I think could be real viable is a lifetime limit. I mean, that is a way in which insurance companies navigate several of our different healthcare options. So still, in the conversation of what kind of language gives this bill the best chance to get across the finish line, I don't think it's as hard to get my colleagues on board with it. I mean, we saw this pass out of committee this year with 100% bipartisan support. I think it was 100% and it didn't make it through ways and means.
So I think the support in the legislature is there.
I think it's just more the technical money pieces on how we handle that.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: And you mentioned ways and means. And so as a quick reminder for anybody listening, that's. That's where the money talks come in, right?
[00:15:20] Speaker B: That's where the money talks come in. Yes.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: You said something else, a lifetime limit.
And I was wondering, can you, I don't know, expand on. On that.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: And also someone else here may. May be able to be. I'm just, I'm just repeating wor.
You know, there were conversations that we're having in the work group. So in the insurance world, you know, there could be a maximum amount of money that one that a benefit would provide.
So let's say, you know, we. You get a million dollars. I don't know, whatever it is. And then under that, there would be all the different coverages that that money would go towards. So maybe it's storage for your egg, for your embryos, maybe it's used for ivf. Maybe it's used. You know, I don't. I. Whatever that looks like, maybe that's one way that would be equitable and also give us some hard numbers of what it would cost.
So just conversations that are happening that
[00:16:18] Speaker A: totally piqued my interest just thinking, okay, we have these out of pocket maxes for the year. What would that look like if it was, you know, beyond which maybe leads into the conversation, what are other states doing? Because at this point, there are places that have insurance that would help families build their families.
And then there are also, I know some places to work where they have great insurance. I know of many people who have paused, maybe a higher paying job to go work at Starbucks even for three months part time so that they can get coverage for fertility treatments.
So what is working for, you know, for the three of you who have been working on this for so long?
Presumably you have seen some formulas that are working, some laws that are working in other states. What could we do in the state of Oregon?
[00:17:15] Speaker E: I can address that briefly. So there are 25 states that have some type of infertility legislation.
Fifteen of those cover IVF or in vitro fertilization, which is probably the most expensive and most effective treatment. And the nice thing about that is we don't have to guess, actually. We know, you know, that 15 other states can do this and the sky hasn't fallen and it hasn't broken their budget. And, you know, we have hard numbers and is Oregon really that different? I mean, it could be a little bit different, but. But essentially we should be able to do it, too.
California was the most recent state to pass an IVF mandate. In terms of how those mandates are structured, it varies a little bit. Most of them do have like a cycle number attached to it. Like it could be like one IVF cycle or three IVF cycles. We think that's a little preferable to $max legislation because, you know, prices of things change, treatments change, doesn't entirely remove the incentive for someone to pursue really aggressive treatment because they're going to run out of their, you know, $25,000 or whatever it is that they have to pursue this treatment. So we've learned quite a bit from other states and we're trying to bring that information to these working groups that Representative Elmer mentioned and try to come to some sort of compromise or agreement of what would be the most equitable and what's the most doable given, you know, the budget realities.
[00:18:56] Speaker D: Here in Oregon, we've seen models in states where they have caps and where they don't have caps. And like Dr. Amato stated, I mean, there's been no huge budget ramifications from that. So I think what we have going for us is that we have a lot of real world data that shows us just how possible this is. And all the different models that can work. So we really need to. To be looking at those case studies, essentially, and seeing what would work here in Oregon. But the data is there, so we're really lucky to be able to have that. And we have data all the way back to, I think, the 1980s. I think on the east coast, there's several states that all the way back to the 1980s, they've been providing this kind of coverage in their insurance plan.
So it's not unusual, it's not rare.
It's been around for a long time, and we're really behind the curve. Oregon is just far behind the curve when it comes to the equity in this kind of care.
[00:19:55] Speaker C: Even in this last session, too, it was a little bit of a breath of fresh air when we heard in committee have them say, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And everyone needs to get on board and working together on how we can help Oregonians have access to this care. So it was in the positive direction, I think, and compared to the last eight years prior to that and going back, we were met with some different challenges. And so I'm excited for 2027 to see what. How we can all come together to get it across the house.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: I think one of the biggest takeaways, too, was just hearing it said so loudly and clearly that this is a disease. I mean, what. What other diseases do we have that we don't offer coverage for? And. And we just continue to ignore this. So that was powerful. I felt like that. That was very powerful. And committee.
[00:20:46] Speaker C: And no person ever wakes up and says, I want to be faced with infertility.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: And when you navigate that, it's not something that anybody hopes to grow their family in that way or be met with the emotional, the financial, the medical challenges that come along with that as part of that. So I think that that's to your point. It definitely does. When you're diagnosed with a disease and then you can't access that treatment, it often is really hard to understand or to comprehend why, if you have diabetes, you can access that care. If you have cancer, you can access that care, but if you have infertility, you're met often with a roadblock in many circumstances right now.
[00:21:26] Speaker D: And to expand on what Molly just said, not only do you not want to have to be faced with IVF to grow your family, people don't want to have to do IVF a lot. I mean, I know for me was incredibly medically phobic. I didn't want to have to grow a family through, you know, assisted reproductive therapies. And I tried for several years to do the lower intervention things, and unfortunately, in my case, that just wasn't going to be the thing that worked. But, you know, I think insurance companies try to make it seem like, you know, it'll just be millions of dollars if people have access to this care. And, I mean, on one hand, I say, what is that matter? If it's a disease, we should be treating a disease in the equitable way that we treat all other diseases.
But people aren't out there wanting to do IVF over and over and over again. It's incredibly taxing mentally, physically, financially, even when there is coverage. This isn't something that people want to have to do a lot of.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: I think there are many people, especially those who are not super familiar with the infertility world, where they're. Their scope of who might be needing this is probably very limited. And one of the things that happens when you open up the door to this conversation is you really hear a lot of the personal stories. I mean, it's one thing to talk about insurance and money and laws and bills, like, kind of at the state level, and that can feel like this little island over here. But then you bring it back. But what about the personal stories? And I think some of them, probably a lot of the general population, they don't. They don't even think about.
I'm thinking, for example, of women I know who were diagnosed with cancer, and they're told, you gotta go through chemo, you gotta go through radiation. And maybe they're married, maybe they're not, but they haven't. They haven't had their children yet. Maybe they're in their 20s, maybe they're in their 30s and going, well, if I go through this chemo, what's that gonna do to my eggs? And so for many of them, if they had the. Either the money or the insurance, they could have an egg retrieval, and they could have those eggs. And same thing for men. They could have the sperm frozen before going through all the chemo, all the radiation. And so that, God willing, when they get through all of that and they've, you know, they're cancer survivors, they could still build a family. That's just one example. But do you have any other. Just really incredible, impactful types of stories just to shed light onto how many types of people this does affect?
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Dr. Amato, I'll let you take that one. And I'm happy to add on.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: You see patients every day.
[00:24:02] Speaker E: So many stories I mean, sometimes when people hear from the provider, it's not as compelling, but when you hear from patients, it's hard not to be moved by these stories. Because if you ask people in surveys, the most impactful thing in their lives, chances are having children is up there. You know, and for people not affected by infertility or don't know, I can't imagine you don't know anybody with infertility because it's so common. You know, it's hard to comprehend what that looks like if there's treatment and you can't access it.
Surveys show that people compare the psychological burden to having infertility very similar to having a cancer diagnosis. It's like that severe, you know, not to mention, you know, the physical challenges, but then there's all these emotional challenges and financial as well. If, if, especially if you don't have insurance coverage and, you know, there's just many, many different situations, many diseases like Stacy alluded to that underlie infertility.
There's, you know, family relationships that, you know, to have children, you might need assistance, be it medication or, you know, in some cases, donor eggs or sperm or in some cases a gestational carrier to carry the pregnancy. Nobody chooses this, but there, there just an infinite number of reasons why people might be struggling to build their families.
And we all know that fertility rates are declining, right? Not that this would solve that problem. There's a lot of probably very good reasons fertility rates are declining. But this is a group of people who've already decided they want to have children, and we have the tools to help them, but they just can't access the treatment, at least not in Oregon.
Jessica, you mentioned going to work for Starbucks. I know patients who leave Oregon to go to a state that has mandated coverage to access treatment.
You know, the Oregon economy is not going to do very well if, without people having more children or people, you know, certainly not if people leave the state. So there's just lots of reasons why this is an important topic.
[00:26:26] Speaker C: I see a lot of folks, too, patients that I work with that will. Just to your point, Dr. Amato, where they'll hop from maybe one employer to the next employer, especially in tech, or if they know that they can go to a different state where the tech or the company they may be working for here, they can work for another company that has an offering of some sort of a family building benefit, even if it's a limited access or a small amount that can come toward that so that they could utilize that benefit.
I think more and more Folks that aren't offering a benefit are becoming more rare because it is also from the employee wellness and retention piece. It does make an employer attractive to retain employees in the state as well when you consider not just what their employment looks like, but expanding that to the health and happiness of your employees and wanting them to stay in terms of longevity long term. Also, I hear that a lot from patients I talk with of like, who are your favorite employers that you work with that offer family building benefits? So that's a common kind of theme, I think that I hear on a day to day basis of like, how can they bridge the gap even if it means that they have to leave to be able to make the dream of having a family come come to life. I was going to say too, Jessica, often folks will say, or I hear this a lot in the community as well is like if you want a baby bad enough, it'll eventually happen. I think that's kind of a common myth that's out there. Like if you just try a little harder, if you just relax, if you just this, if you just that, that it'll eventually happen. And for those of us that have a medical diagnosis of infertility or unexplained infertility, it isn't just going to happen. You could stand on your head and do all of the things and it still may not happen. So having that support and that medical intervention and being able to work with a clinical team that is there to help and guide you in that path is such a personal and I think a really important piece in terms of access.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: And we talked about that this is a disease. And if anybody mentioned they were diagnosed with any other disease, probably nobody would tell them, oh, just relax.
Oh, just it's in your head.
You know, I mean, of course there's a lot of value in homeopathic and natural things. I think a lot of people start there, you know, they say, okay, is there something I need to change? Maybe with my diet or vitamins or the exercise, whatever. But then there are certain things where that stops and like I'm so thankful we do have technology and medication and doctors for those next steps when you can't solve it by just relaxing.
You mentioned employers. That brings the conversation back really even to your world Rep. Elmer of such a strong background in business. And I hear this a lot of time in the business communities. People are leaving Oregon, businesses are leaving Oregon. Now we're hearing the population decline and people, families that are going to other states just so they can afford to have children and access the treatment. So, you know, from a state level or from a business level, is there anything more you want to say at any of you to why this should matter to employers? Why should this matter to the government that they would want to offer this kind of care?
[00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot of room for improvement right now in our state when it comes to retention of our more than just businesses, of our communities. And like I said earlier today that, that, you know, there's so many things in which I would love to craft policy that would help Oregon, but this is one, you know, that, that is real to so many people. And I, I think that it's somewhat embarrassing that Oregon is so far behind other states and even having anything to offer.
So I, I just think the, the door is wide open for this conversation.
I'm glad that we heard that. It's not an if, it's a when, but we're already behind on that when, so we need to move swiftly. And this, this is one area that would be helpful for folks who are struggling in this area and are wanting to raise a family here.
Obviously, then we have the conversation about what does this look like for employers who are then mandated to offer this benefit, and what is the real cost. But there's. There's so many things that we can do to be friendlier to our businesses and offer support in that area, too. I believe those are two separate conversations, but all conversations that could have positive outcomes.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: As we're about to wrap up here, I wanted to take a moment and have everybody complete some sentences. But first, is there anything that any of you would want to comment on or, you know, share regarding this conversation that we haven't already touched on?
[00:31:28] Speaker D: I mean, I would say that I think this is just an issue of reproductive justice. And in this state where we are really big on being a reproductive justice state, we can't leave out this end of the spectrum of reproductive health care.
And that's been done for far too long. Historically, Oregon passed the Reproductive Health Equity act in 2017, and initially when that was introduced, it did include fertility care like ivf, and it was sort of taken away as a compromise for passing that bill. So when you look at that history and how long we've been fighting to try and include fertility care. Again, to Rep. Helmer's point, we are just way past due to tackle this, and we're behind the curve of other states and we have the data. So it's time that we stop talking about it and really get serious about passing it in this next Session, I think.
[00:32:25] Speaker E: Yeah. And I would just like to point out that the Oregon legislators and Oregon public employees actually have very generous fertility benefits.
I believe it's like $35,000 a year. And at the very least, their constituents deserve the same coverage. So along what Stacey says, I really do see this as a justice issue.
[00:32:49] Speaker C: I think it's something that we will continue to come back, too. I think on that side, between all. I think everyone in this room today would continue to fight. I mean, for this access, you know, it's something that isn't. We're not going away. I think that's the piece, too, for Oregonians, is that it is a very important issue that families are facing in real time.
And I'm looking forward to us getting it across the finish line, even if it means we have to do it incrementally so that families can grow and be happy here in Oregon.
[00:33:22] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Well, in closing, we're going to do a quick, fast, round robin, all to complete a few sentences. So the first sentence is the biggest myth about infertility is. And we'll go From Molly to Dr. Amato to Stacy and then. And then Rev Elmer, if you want to throw one in there as well. So, Molly, the biggest myth around infertility
[00:33:43] Speaker C: is, I think I kind of touched on it, that even if you want to have a baby bad enough that it'll eventually happen, you know, infertility doesn't always end with a baby. But, you know, or, you know, no matter amount of love, effort, hope you throw it, throw at it if you will, it doesn't always guarantee that outcome.
[00:34:03] Speaker D: I would say the biggest myth about infertility, or maybe misunderstanding is that people don't understand that this is classified as a disease and it should be treated as other diseases are.
[00:34:14] Speaker E: I would say the biggest myth is that infertility treatment is expensive.
We only consider it expensive because people have to pay out of pocket for it. When you look in comparison to other medical treatments, it's actually not that expensive. An IVF cycle, $20,000, $25,000, about the same as a used car, maybe. Like, it's just not that expensive. But the difference being that people have to pay out of pocket. So I think that's. That's the biggest myth.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: That is such a good point. When you think of so many of the other, other big treatments, cancer treatments, I don't know, diabetes maintenance, go. Go down the list. Surgeries. If you had to pay out of pocket for those, you know, what would that be? I mean, even. Even thinking of, you Know, hospital bills that come through if they've made a mistake, let's say. And I remember getting one where it's like, you owe $86,000. And I was like, like, I'm sorry, what? And it was, you know, because they hadn't run it through the correct insurance number.
So I wonder what we would, you know, if we actually saw the bills and the amounts of everything else that happens in the medical world.
To your point, we. We see what a big number the infertility costs are because so many people are having to pay every single dime of that.
So let's do one more round robin sentence. So I want everyone to complete the sentence.
One thing every couple should know is
[00:35:44] Speaker C: you don't have to navigate infertility alone, that you can ask questions, that you can advocate for yourself, find people who do understand and remember that there is no single right way to have a family.
[00:35:57] Speaker E: I would say I think it's important for all couples, all patients, really, all individuals to know that their reproductive health system is actually a marker of their general health.
So something like your menstrual cycle, which we sometimes call the fifth vital sign or a semen analysis in a male, can really be reflective of your general health. So everybody at some point should have an assessment of their reproductive health for a variety of reasons, whether you want to build families or not, because it tells us a lot about your general health.
[00:36:36] Speaker D: I would say that one thing every couple should know, faced with infertility, is that things take a lot longer than you might expect.
So as much as we have, like, hyper focused on pregnancy prevention in reproductive health care, I would also say that we need to be hyper focused on fertility as a health marker, kind of like Dr. Amada was saying. And I wish that more people would get tested earlier to see what their fertility looks like so that they have more options going forward.
Planning what family planning looks like for them.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: Yeah, and I would just say for couples, or I like the word patience better because we're not. They're not all couples, is that you have a group of people right here in this podcast, and you definitely have an Oregon state legislator who who sees you and understands the problems that you're facing and is trying to do something to bring reprieve into, bring assistance for your journey on this.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: And we are very appreciative. I know you have many constituents that are so hopeful and, and so excited that maybe this could make it past the finish line in this upcoming long session. So I am sure in future life and legislation episodes, we will be giving some updates on how that's all going to go. I just wanted to thank all of you for taking time to come have this conversation. I know that you, you do this all the time and at some point you are probably tired of saying the same thing in the same statistics and making the same points. But it is an important conversation. It is affecting so many individuals and so many couples in our state. So hopefully we will be able to share some promising news in episodes to come. So thank you to each of you for your time and for your effort and for your work. We will include, you know, links in our episode notes for any of the things that that you have some resources in case people are interested. So Oregonians, thank you for tuning in to this episode about fertility and infertility benefits. We will keep you updated. We hope that you learned some new things and that you come back and join us for our next episode of Life and Legislation with Lucetta.
