Jewish Fertility Foundation Inc

Background Statement

The Jewish community celebrates families, but the journey to create families can be fraught. Because family is central to Jewish life, individuals experience tremendous stress when the path to parenthood is not simple. Infertility remains taboo and generally is not openly acknowledged. Often, people struggling with infertility do not find a welcoming place in the Jewish community. We are changing that by providing direct Jewish community-based services.

While an estimated 1 in 6 Americans experience medical infertility, we know the rates are higher among the Jewish community. According to the CDC, 12.5% of US women use fertility services (16.7% among Jewish women for reasons including a greater focus on education/career, marrying later, and genetic issues). Thirty-one states do not require insurers to cover any portion of fertility treatments. When an IVF cycle costs an average of $20,000 in the US (with no guarantee of success), many people sacrifice their future financial stability to pay for multiple rounds of IVF or, give up hope of conceiving, as the costs are simply too high.