Young cancer survivor sees IVF as a route to pregnancy and breaking BRCA1 mutation chain that has plagued her family
Now that her active radiation and chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer is behind her, Katie McKnight of Richmond and her husband are looking to the possibility of having children.My diagnosis with breast cancer at the age of 30 shattered my world. It challenged my sense of who I was and who I was becoming. I was young, newly married, healthy and ambitious — in other words, thriving — and planning for the future.
Our family-building hopes were put on hold as I stepped back from work and underwent 16 months of cancer treatment: 26 rounds of chemotherapy, four surgeries, six visits to the emergency room and hundreds of doctor appointments in between. Now that active treatment is behind me, I am looking to my future and to the possibility of having children. For my husband and me, this requires implanting our embryos — a procedure that is not currently covered by my health insurance. This is the only way that we can realize our dream of a family.
Now that I am medically cleared to get pregnant, I need to come up with $5,000 to $15,000 to pay for moving my cryopreserved embryos out of a freezer and into my uterus and to access the medications, doctor appointments, transvaginal ultrasounds and other essential services I need to build my family. For Californians struggling with infertility who need to start IVF from scratch, the cost is even steeper — starting at around $21,000, with the potential to rise to a six-digit figure.
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