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Jenny and Jimmy are the All-American couple. He was the hot firefighter that fell in love with the ER nurse.
Little did they know they were a little too average. Jenny and Jimmy are part of the statistics in America on infertility. They didn’t realize how hard it was going to be to conceive. After a long and expensive struggle, they were rewarded with a bouncing baby girl.
We were lucky enough to have them on the podcast to talk about their experience with IVF. If you or someone you know struggles with infertility, Jenny and Jimmy gave us some great advice on how to cover the cost of IVF.
We also chat about…
- How they met
- how they paid off $120k in debt
- Jenny’s side hustles
Enjoy this chat with Jenny & Jimmy, and please subscribe to us in iTunes if you enjoyed it!
Show notes and links from today’s episode
- MOST VALUABLE IVF RESOURCE
- Infertility grants/scholarship list
- Their Twitter
- Their AH-MAZING Instagram!
- Jenny and Jimmy’s blog
Key takeaways from our chat with Jenny & Jimmy
1 – Don’t ignore your body
Get things checked out! Even if you’re nervous. You should go because you’re nervous! If you have a feeling something is wrong, go get it checked out.
Jenny and Jimmy knew things were going to be a little funky, but they didn’t know how bad they were going to be. They started investigating and discovered they needed to start trying to have kids right away.
2 – Cashflow when you can
Check your insurance plan to see what is covered and what isn’t. 15 states require IVF coverage, so you’ve got a decent shot at having at least part of it covered.
If it’s not covered by insurance, they recommend cash flowing when you possibly can and only taking on debt when you absolutely have to. Try to negotiate the price of services or find a cheaper source for the drugs.
3 – Find infertility scholarships
Some large companies offer grants for infertility treatments. There are also non-profits out there that give out grants. They vary from year to year and in amount, so you might have to resubmit for the same thing and it might be different. You might have to fill out a bunch of paperwork, tell your story, and prove you have a legit medical need, but it would be so worth it. It might only be $5,000 but when your total bill is $90,000….. anything helps.
Questions? Like or dislike? Leave us a comment!
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Jenny - Living Life Loving Us says
Hey guys!
Just wanted to thank you again for having us on. Also wanted to put it out there that if ANYONE has ANY questions about IVF, infertility or any parts of the process they can feel free to reach out.
Sometimes it’s hard to talk about, or something you may not even want to talk about, but it’s important to have your questions answered. We’ve been there. We’ve done this process enough to know the emotional and financial toll it can take on you and we were lucky enough to ultimately be successful. Unfortunately, we have a lot of close friends and even family who have not been able to conceive despite their efforts, so we know about that aspect of it too.
Thanks again to Gwen and J and hope to get the community talking!
PracticeBalance says
Great podcast, thanks for openly talking about something that is still often taboo and yet becoming increasingly prevalent. I also experienced infertility, and I am also in the medical field. I now have a 2.5 year old daughter but struggled through IUI and IVF for 3 years before getting pregnant. The one thing that I’d like to echo was the sentiment that you have to think about the money you’re spending on this as an investment in something you greatly value, even if the result in the end is not success. We are also pretty frugal and I remember worrying about the huge expense when I needed to go through yet another egg retrieval… I asked my husband if we should give up at that point: “It’s gonna be another X thousand dollars…” I’ll never forget what he said: “I can’t think of another thing I’d rather spend my money on right now.”