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Doctors tell committee fertility preservation is time-sensitive 'preventative medicine'
Summary
Physicians told the House Health and Welfare Committee that fertility preservation is often medically urgent for cancer patients and that costs (often $10,000–$15,000 for egg/embryo procedures) put the service out of reach for many without insurance coverage.
Medical witnesses told legislators that fertility preservation is frequently time-sensitive and should be regarded as part of comprehensive cancer care. Dr. Rhianna Menon, a fellowship-trained breast surgeon, described patients who ‘‘have to decide right away if they need to have a family in the future’’ once diagnosed and noted that treatment often begins quickly.
Dr. Kristen Slater, a reproductive endocrinology and OB-GYN specialist, framed preservation as ‘‘preventative medicine’’ and provided cost examples: ‘‘For women, it is $10,000 to $15,000 for the procedure and the medication and the anesthesia,’’ and for men she estimated about $3,000 including banking and storage under typical clinic discounts. Slater told the committee that iatrogenic infertility—infertility caused by medical treatment—should be treated differently from other forms of infertility because the treatment itself causes the loss of reproductive function.
