Our Memphis fertility center has a long history of helping our nation’s active and retired military access affordable care.
We offer a military discount, connect our patients with fertility drug discounts offered through programs such as Compassionate Corps, and now we have joined together with an industry leader to further assist wounded warriors.
This Veterans Day, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, SART, announces a new program called Service to Veterans to provide deeply discounted fertility treatment services to “veterans whose service-related injuries damaged their reproductive systems.”
IVF may be the only hope for injured soldiers
Currently the Department of Veterans Affairs is not permitted to offer in vitro fertilization, IVF, to veterans, even though injuries sustained while on active duty can permanently impair reproductive function. Our Memphis fertility center team calls for a change to that policy.
A bill in Congress stalled last spring, but H.R. 2257 will appear on the legislative docket again in 2016. Meanwhile, SART and fertility clinics such as ours will stand in the gap for retired soldiers whose injuries make it impossible to have children.
“Battlefield injuries such as those caused by improvised explosive devices, IEDs, are rendering men infertile, with no chance to become fathers when they return to civilian life,” says Dr. Raymond Ke, Chief of Assisted Reproductive Technologies. “Men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces suffer from infertility at the same or increased rates as the general population, and we want to ensure that they have access to the highest quality infertility treatment options.”
The VA released statistics in A National Health Study for a New Generation of U.S. Veterans showing that 15.8% of women and 13.8% of men serving in Iraq and Afghanistan reported infertility, and that women were more likely than men to seek treatment.
More about the Service to Veterans program at our Memphis fertility center
Eligibility requirements are established by the Department of Defense, and our Memphis fertility center will accept the first 10 patients evaluated at our program. U.S. fertility clinics will connect veterans to these special discounts during the first six months of 2016.
Contact us at our Memphis fertility center to learn more about the military discount, and follow the progress of H.R. 2257 here.
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