When Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife publicly announced they would pause his campaign and travel to Norway for IVF because of cost barriers in the United States, it captured headlines for its political implications. But as a physician who has spent more than three decades walking alongside people trying to build families, I saw something deeper in their story: a powerful illustration of how fertility care has become a crossroads of medicine, money, and modern life itself.
Their decision to seek treatment abroad speaks to a reality many families face — IVF is often financially out of reach at home, even in high-income countries with advanced medical systems. But it also opens a more hopeful and necessary conversation: what if we prepared bodies as carefully as we debate policies?
In the United States, a single IVF cycle can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000, often not including medications, genetic testing, or embryo storage. Multiple cycles are common. Insurance coverage remains inconsistent, and for many families, the financial strain becomes as heavy as the emotional one.¹
It is in this context that federal lawmakers have proposed bills to make fertility care — including IVF — an essential health benefit under national insurance frameworks. The goal is simple and profound: no one should be excluded from the possibility of building a family because of cost alone.²,³
North of the border, the Canadian system tells a parallel story, but with its own unique architecture.
In Canada, fertility care lives in a patchwork of provincial programs, tax credits, and private insurance coverage rather than under a single national IVF policy.
Some provinces are pushing the boundaries of public support:
- Ontario funds one IVF cycle per eligible patient under OHIP and supplements this with a fertility tax credit that allows families to recover a portion of treatment-related expenses.⁴
- British Columbia recently launched a publicly funded IVF program that contributes up to approximately $19,000 toward a standard cycle, marking a major shift toward more equitable access.⁵
- Other provinces offer partial grants, tax credits, or limited assistance — and some offer none at all.
At the federal level, political platforms have begun to float the idea of a national IVF support program to harmonize access across provinces, while Canada’s medical expense tax credit has expanded to include a broader range of fertility-related costs.⁶,⁷
This momentum matters. It signals that fertility is increasingly being recognized as a legitimate, mainstream healthcare need rather than a niche service.
But here is where I gently widen the lens.
Policy discussions — whether in Washington or Ottawa — tend to focus on who pays for IVF. In clinical practice, I often find myself asking a different question:
How prepared is the body for what IVF is about to ask of it?
In my book, Optimize Your Fertility Naturally, I describe fertility as a vital sign of overall health — a biological signal that reflects how sleep, nutrition, stress, metabolism, environment, and daily habits are shaping the body at a cellular level.
IVF is a remarkable medical achievement. It can bypass blocked tubes, compensate for severe sperm issues, and help families conceive when nature alone cannot. But it does not override biology. It works with the quality of the eggs, sperm, and uterine environment it is given.
Long before a cycle begins, the body is quietly writing the story of how that cycle may unfold.
There is a powerful preconception window — often three to six months or more — when lifestyle choices can meaningfully influence:
- Egg and sperm quality, shaped by metabolic health, micronutrients, oxidative stress, and inflammation
- Hormonal signaling, influenced by sleep patterns, circadian rhythms, and chronic stress
- Immune balance and implantation potential, affected by gut health, movement, and environmental exposures
- Epigenetic expression, the biological “software” that helps determine how early embryonic development is guided
These are not abstract wellness concepts. They show up in embryo development, implantation success, pregnancy resilience, and, increasingly, in what we understand about the child’s long-term health.
This is where I see a natural bridge between public policy and personal empowerment.
I strongly support efforts, in both the U.S. and Canada, to make fertility care more affordable and accessible. IVF should not be a privilege reserved for those who can write large cheques or board international flights.
But access alone is not the full answer.
A truly modern fertility system would:
- Provide coverage for medical treatment when needed
- Also invest in preconception health education and support — nutrition, sleep medicine, stress physiology, environmental health, and metabolic screening
- Treat fertility as an integrated part of whole-body health, not a standalone reproductive problem
This is not about replacing IVF. It is about making IVF more effective, more humane, and more aligned with how the body actually works.
When a political candidate travels overseas to pursue something as deeply human as parenthood, it forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: fertility care is still navigating its place in our healthcare systems.
But it also offers an opportunity.
As governments debate funding models and families weigh their options, we can begin to tell a more complete story — one that honors both medical innovation and biological preparation.
The future of fertility care, in my view, lies at the intersection of policy, medicine, and daily life.
Imagine a system where:
- IVF is covered when needed
- Preconception health is supported before intervention
- People are empowered to see fertility not as something that “breaks,” but as something that can be nurtured, strengthened, and optimized
That is the vision I carry into my clinical work and into every page of Optimize Your Fertility Naturally — a vision where building a family begins not in a laboratory, but in the everyday choices that quietly shape our biology long before a test ever turns positive.
- Kaiser Family Foundation. “IVF in the U.S.: Coverage, Costs, and Access.” KFF Women’s Health Policy, 2024. https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/.
- U.S. Congress. Health Coverage for IVF and Fertility Care Act, H.R. 3480, 119th Congress, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3480.
- U.S. Congress. Access to Fertility Treatment and Care Act, H.R. 4648, 119th Congress, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4648.
- Government of Ontario. “Get Fertility Treatments.” Ontario.ca, updated 2024. https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-fertility-treatments.
- Government of British Columbia. “Publicly Funded IVF Program.” Government of British Columbia, 2025. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/accessing-health-care/publicly-funded-ivf-program.
- Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society. “Federal Funding and Fertility Care in Canada.” CFAS.ca, 2025. https://cfas.ca/Federal_Funding.html.
- Government of Canada. “Medical Expense Tax Credit: Fertility and Surrogacy Expenses.” Canada.ca, updated 2024. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/sexual-health/financial-support-fertility-treatment-surrogacy.html.
- Seli, E., and A. H. Simon. “Preconception Health and Assisted Reproductive Technology Outcomes.” Fertility and Sterility 112, no. 3 (2019): 417–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.05.018.
- Fleming, Tom P., Adam J. Watkins, Kevin Velazquez, et al. “Origins of Lifetime Health Around the Time of Conception: Causes and Consequences.” The Lancet 391, no. 10132 (2018): 1842–1852. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30312-X.
Dr Marina OBGYN