The road to parenthood isn’t always simple. While some parents-to-be may face social and economic hurdles, others are dealing with biological challenges, and struggling to understand their next step forward.
Read More:
“Many of the tests on the market don't give that full comprehensive picture of overall reproductive health, they focus more on the ovarian reserve testing [or egg counting],” says Asima Ahmad, chief medical officer at Carrot Fertility. “We've included the cholesterol panel, hemoglobin A1C tests, and CRP tests, which is an inflammation marker. A lot of the tests on the market don't include these parameters.”
Employees using Carrot will have access to these tests, which require just a finger prick and a few drops of blood, beginning in January. Once they send the test off to a lab and get their results back, they’ll have the option of scheduling a call with a doctor to review the results so that they can better understand the next phase of their
Fertility testing is not covered by all health insurance plans — and the ones that do often won’t cover necessary treatments if a diagnosis is made, according to the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago. More employers are starting to provide these benefits to support and retain employees, but still, just 19% currently offer a fertility benefit plan that covers IVF and just 18% offer fertility benefits outside of IVF, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
Read More:
“Fertility benefits are one part of healthcare that for many, many years was ignored,” Ahmad says. “When people think about reproductive health, a lot of times they think about pregnancy care and contraceptive care, and the part that gets ignored is the infertility and fertility aspects. But the world is changing and the way that we are building our families is changing. It's important that employees understand what their fertility potential is and what their options are.”
