Vaillancourt Family IVF Funds
Donation protected
February 21, 2020 marks five amazing years of marriage for Eric and I. Never would I have thought that this would also mean that we have been trying to start a family for five years as well. We have spent the last five years of our lives battling every obstacle that life has thrown at us.We knew that when we got married, with him being a Canadian and me being an American, that we would have more than your typical marital challenges. But I love this man more than anything and him, me, so we know that we can defeat anything that is put before us. However, we never expected that infertility would be something that we would be dealing with.
We have seen many doctors. We have tried different medications, supplements, holistic approaches, test after test, and for the first couple of years of our marriage we took more of the approach of “if it’s meant to be, it will happen”. No matter what we have tried in the last five something years, nothing has happened.
As a last resort, we have sent for more IVF in Toronto sometime this summer. We have already spent several thousand dollars on fertility treatments and to be honest, we didn’t think that we would be told that our only option would be IVF. While we are fortunate enough to live in Ontario where they do cover the first round of the actual procedure, we are responsible for all other associated cost including medications (we were told from $5,000 to $9,000); sperm washing, banking, and storage (we are estimating around $1,300 to $1,600); and potentially genetic testing of the embryos if I am a carrier for a hereditary disease that my mother has which is even more expensive. This is not including the medication Eric and I are already taking, nor any of our travel expenses and we have made and will need to make many more trips to Toronto.
We found out in September 2019 for certain that we really had no other option besides IVF. Of course we could try other lets costly treatments but the chances of conception is extremely unlikely due to Eric’s severely low (and sometimes non-existent) sperm count and then factor in my PCOS and the need to be medicated to ovulate. It is a hit or miss with Eric’s sperm counts which is why we need to bank his sperm which is contributing to some of the additional cost. We have been saving up ever since. But trying to save up even the low side of what we can expect, roughly $7,500, in less than a year is not plausible for most people. As we get closer and closer to spring/summer, we are starting to worry that we won’t have the money we need saved up in time when our name gets called for IVF.
We have debated asking for help for a couple months and the decision to do so was not taken lightly. In December, I was out of a job for a little over a month. And since January, the school boards in Ontario have been going on rotating strikes which are increasingly getting more and more frequent which means that Eric's income has been affected as well since most of his students he teaches are from inside the schools. There is talk of the schools going on full strikes which would really mess with our saving for IVF. This isn't a matter of us being able to support ourselves, this is a matter of us trying to save up several thousand dollars in such a short time. So we are reaching out. Anything will help and any money that we do collect will go straight into our baby fund. To show our gratitude and to show our future baby who helped us during this time, we will be putting names on the back of puzzle pieces and frame it for everyone who donates. For anybody who were to donate $100 or more, we will send out a thank you card enclosed with the baby's footprints after the baby is a couple months old. We want to thank everyone who even takes the time to read through this, even if you can't help financially. Please spread the word and help our dream of becoming parents come true. Going through IVF can be a very isolating journey, we just need lots of positive vibes right now and hopefully the next few months pass by fast! We want to get to making our baby.
If you donate more than $100 and want us to send you the baby's footprints, please send me an email with your contact info. Also let us know the name you want on the back of the puzzle piece.
With love and gratitude,
Shari, Eric, and Future Baby Vaillancourt
We have seen many doctors. We have tried different medications, supplements, holistic approaches, test after test, and for the first couple of years of our marriage we took more of the approach of “if it’s meant to be, it will happen”. No matter what we have tried in the last five something years, nothing has happened.
As a last resort, we have sent for more IVF in Toronto sometime this summer. We have already spent several thousand dollars on fertility treatments and to be honest, we didn’t think that we would be told that our only option would be IVF. While we are fortunate enough to live in Ontario where they do cover the first round of the actual procedure, we are responsible for all other associated cost including medications (we were told from $5,000 to $9,000); sperm washing, banking, and storage (we are estimating around $1,300 to $1,600); and potentially genetic testing of the embryos if I am a carrier for a hereditary disease that my mother has which is even more expensive. This is not including the medication Eric and I are already taking, nor any of our travel expenses and we have made and will need to make many more trips to Toronto.
We found out in September 2019 for certain that we really had no other option besides IVF. Of course we could try other lets costly treatments but the chances of conception is extremely unlikely due to Eric’s severely low (and sometimes non-existent) sperm count and then factor in my PCOS and the need to be medicated to ovulate. It is a hit or miss with Eric’s sperm counts which is why we need to bank his sperm which is contributing to some of the additional cost. We have been saving up ever since. But trying to save up even the low side of what we can expect, roughly $7,500, in less than a year is not plausible for most people. As we get closer and closer to spring/summer, we are starting to worry that we won’t have the money we need saved up in time when our name gets called for IVF.
We have debated asking for help for a couple months and the decision to do so was not taken lightly. In December, I was out of a job for a little over a month. And since January, the school boards in Ontario have been going on rotating strikes which are increasingly getting more and more frequent which means that Eric's income has been affected as well since most of his students he teaches are from inside the schools. There is talk of the schools going on full strikes which would really mess with our saving for IVF. This isn't a matter of us being able to support ourselves, this is a matter of us trying to save up several thousand dollars in such a short time. So we are reaching out. Anything will help and any money that we do collect will go straight into our baby fund. To show our gratitude and to show our future baby who helped us during this time, we will be putting names on the back of puzzle pieces and frame it for everyone who donates. For anybody who were to donate $100 or more, we will send out a thank you card enclosed with the baby's footprints after the baby is a couple months old. We want to thank everyone who even takes the time to read through this, even if you can't help financially. Please spread the word and help our dream of becoming parents come true. Going through IVF can be a very isolating journey, we just need lots of positive vibes right now and hopefully the next few months pass by fast! We want to get to making our baby.
If you donate more than $100 and want us to send you the baby's footprints, please send me an email with your contact info. Also let us know the name you want on the back of the puzzle piece.
With love and gratitude,
Shari, Eric, and Future Baby Vaillancourt
Organizer
Eric Vaillancourt
Organizer
Chelmsford, ON