Windsor clinics to offer provincially-funded fertility treatment

50 clinics across Ontario will offer government-funded fertility treatments, starting today.

The province will fund one cycle of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), as well as “unlimited rounds of artificial insemination” for qualifying women, according to the press release.

Those eligible for the treatments include those with medical issues causing infertility and those with non-medical issues, such as single people and same-sex couples.

It is estimated that one in six Ontario couples is affected by infertility at some point in their lives. Four thousand more women will receive IVF funding under the new program, which until Monday only covered 1,000 patients whose fallopian tubes were completely blocked. The program will also cover the cost of the one-at-a-time transfer of all viable embryos to allow for the possibility of multiple chances for pregnancy and to reduce the occurrence of higher-risk multiple births.

One cycle of IVF costs about $10,000, but patients still have to pay for fertility-related drugs and embryo storage.

The clinic’s website says it has created a wait list for government-funded IVF already.

At the beginning of October, the Ontario Liberals announced the province will spend $50 million a year expanding coverage of in vitro fertilization to help would-be parents grow their families.

The Ottawa Fertility Centre is the only clinic approved for eastern Ontario.

To date, Ontario is the fourth province in Canada (alongside Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick) to provide some kind of public support to assist families seeking IVF.