Fertility struggles led this CEO to tackle family building benefits at work

Infertility struggles are often borne in silence, yet it can have a loud impact on an individual's mental well-being. 

It's estimated that 9% of men and 10% of women will struggle with fertility, according to the CDC. A survey by Fertility Matters found that 93% of women felt their career was negatively impacted due to the stress and mental strain of their fertility journey.  

For Jeni Mayorskaya, this struggle is personal. Now the founder and CEO of Stork Club, which provides family building and fertility benefits, Mayorskaya herself struggled with fertility issues in her 20s. 

"I was diagnosed with reproductive health issues in my early 20s and it was a really dark place," she says. "I still remember how my OBGYN basically told me, if you want to have children, just go find a boyfriend and have them right now, because it's going to be really hard for you in the future." 

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Mayorskaya says she didn't have the right support system to navigate these issues at the time, and she also felt uneducated about what was actually happening with her body and what options were available for her. But the more she opened up about those questions and concerns, the more she realized she was far from alone. 

"Having money and benefits is important, but I also realized I had no idea what the doctor was talking about, and as I started having more conversations with people, I discovered it's such a common situation," Mayorskaya says. "That was definitely the biggest inspiration for starting Stork Club." 

Mayorskaya founded Stork Club in 2018. The platform's goal is to offer options and support for people pursuing pregnancy and family building at any stage. Stork Club offers coverage for benefits like IVF, surrogacy and adoption, and goes beyond fertility by providing unlimited virtual visits during pregnancy, birth, postpartum recovery, and newborn care. Additionally, the platform trains managers on how to discuss fertility challenges so employees feel supported and seen. 

"The attention to the family building space has really been built out in the past few years and has made everyone a stakeholder, from medical providers to benefits teams and HR people," Mayorskaya says. "There are so many public stories about people going through this and how hard it is, and we actually coach HR teams and managers on how to talk about this and present solutions." 

Read more: Are fertility benefits a right or a privilege? An infertility specialist weighs in 

But the conversation shouldn't just start when an employee is in the midst of a fertility challenge, Mayorskaya says. Instead, the most inclusive employers recognize that family building is intertwined with reproductive health at all stages. 

"A family-building journey is much longer than an IVF stage or an egg-freezing stage. We wanted to support the rest of the reproductive journey," Mayorskaya says. "It starts with general reproductive wellness, to hormonal treatments for people in menopause, or supporting people through the transition between genders. This all affects reproductive health." 

Since starting Stork Club, Mayorskaya has seen a huge shift in the way employers address fertility support through their benefits, and her platform is continuously evolving to provide support at every stage. These benefits aren't just perks for well-heeled tech companies, she says — rather, the majority of employees are asking for these benefits, and employers are eager to provide them. 

"We've made so much progress and it's a must-have benefit to retain diverse talent," she says. "Issues of family building are not just about not being able to conceive. It goes way beyond that."