--- title: IVF: More Couples Crowdfunding to Pay for Procedure description: More and more couples are turning to crowdfunding to fund costly in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, Bloomberg reports. canonical: https://time.com/4540936/couples-ivf-crowdfunding/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-21T18:44:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:39.700Z og:title: You'll Never Believe How Couples Are Paying for IVF og:description: The pricey treatment can cost up to $12,400 og:url: https://time.com/4540936/couples-ivf-crowdfunding/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55303338254f8895/6988ab1da988ca2f4d6b9db9/ivf-crowdfunding-increase.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5500 og:image:height: 3094 og:image:alt: Two baby soothers in petri dishes illustrating boy and girl designer babies and genetic engineering og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You'll Never Believe How Couples Are Paying for IVF twitter:description: The pricey treatment can cost up to $12,400 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55303338254f8895/6988ab1da988ca2f4d6b9db9/ivf-crowdfunding-increase.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # You'll Never Believe How Couples Are Paying for IVF > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=7c8ecb0a-b087-4720-9c5d-13d56b02795f&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1)  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Oct 21, 2016 6:44 PM UTC  Genetics, test tube babies, baby, boy, girl, genetic engineering, baby soothers, birth, experiment, sex of baby, dummy, family planning, petri dish, bio engineering, cloning, designer babies, conceptual, IVF, reproduction, biology, in-vitro fertilization, reproduction, cloned, DNA, egg, clinical trial, sex of baby, blue, pink Genetics, test tube babies, baby, boy, girl, genetic engineering, baby soothers, birth, experiment, sex of baby, dummy, family planning, petri dish, bio engineering, cloning, designer babies, conceptual, IVF, reproduction, biology, in-vitro fertilization, reproduction, cloned, DNA, egg, clinical trial, sex of baby, blue, pink Andrew Brookes—Getty Images/Cultura RF  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Oct 21, 2016 6:44 PM UTC More and more couples are turning to crowdfunding to fund costly in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, [Bloomberg reports](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-20/how-to-pay-for-that-baby-crowdfund-it). The cost of IVF treatments, a popular choice for women struggling [with infertility issues](http://motto.time.com/4463347/fertility-struggles-advice/?iid=sr-link2), averages around $12,400 for a single round, according to [the American Society of Reproductive Medicine](https://www.asrm.org/detail.aspx?id=3023). But as only 26% of insurance companies cover IVF treatments, according to [the 2016 Society of Human Resource Management Employee Benefits survey](https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Documents/2016%20SHRM%20Employee%20Benefits%20Full%20Report.pdf), the procedure has serious financial barriers. [_Follow Motto on Facebook_](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/)_._ To shoulder the staggeringly costs, more couples are asking their friends, families, and online strangers to chip in. Since popular crowdfunding platform [GoFundMe](https://www.gofundme.com/) launched in 2010, people have donated over $3.6 million to more than 1,700 IVF crowdfunding campaigns, according to Bloomberg. Another crowdfunding platform, [Give Forward](https://pages.giveforward.com/homepage/), saw a 429% increase in the number of IVF and adoption campaigns on its site over the first eight months of 2016 compared to the same period last year, Give Forward’s CEO Josh Chapman told Bloomberg. Crystal Barrett, 33, who is now six months pregnant, told Bloomberg that she successfully raised $1,500 for costs related to IVF medications on crowdfunding platform [YouCaring](https://www.youcaring.com/). She provided the people who donated money with frequent updates on how she was faring throughout the process. “It’s not an easy thing to share publicly,” Barrett told Bloomberg. “But my husband and I were kind of between a rock and a hard place.” Read the full story on [Bloomberg.com](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-20/how-to-pay-for-that-baby-crowdfund-it) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4540936/couples-ivf-crowdfunding/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4540936/couples-ivf-crowdfunding/"},"headline":"You'll Never Believe How Couples Are Paying for IVF","datePublished":"2016-10-21T18:44:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:39.700Z","description":"The pricey treatment can cost up to $12,400","url":"https://time.com/4540936/couples-ivf-crowdfunding/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55303338254f8895/6988ab1da988ca2f4d6b9db9/ivf-crowdfunding-increase.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55303338254f8895/6988ab1da988ca2f4d6b9db9/ivf-crowdfunding-increase.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Two baby soothers in petri dishes illustrating boy and girl designer babies and genetic engineering","caption":"Two baby soothers in petri dishes illustrating boy and girl designer babies and genetic engineering","creditText":"Andrew Brookes—Getty Images/Cultura RF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4540936/couples-ivf-crowdfunding/","name":"You'll Never Believe How Couples Are Paying for IVF"}}]}] ```