How Employee Fertility Benefits Help LGBTQI+ Families

Pride celebrations across Canada brought stories of positivity, courage and resilience to the fore. Seeing 2SLGBTQI+ people and communities joyously celebrate their identities in all their beauty was uplifting and nourishing for my soul at a time when not every community is as welcoming as my own. It also encouraged me to share my own story and journey as a member of the queer community, and the barriers my partner and I have overcome to realize our dream of becoming parents.

Breaking down barriers

Having kids, fertility treatments and employer benefits generally aren’t things that 18-year-olds worry about. But, ten years ago, when I was 18, I knew in my heart that I wanted to be a mom one day. And with my then-partner (now spouse) being trans, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy an easy feat.

Fertility treatments like IVF (in vitro fertilization) or IUI (intrauterine insemination) would be our only way to conceive, and the foster and adoption systems aren’t always inviting for LGBTQI+ people. Faced with very little choice, the reality is that for couples like us, and the many couples in Canada affected by infertility, assisted reproductive technology (ART) such as IUI or IVF remains incredibly expensive and inaccessible to many.

Our younger generation is more acutely aware of fertility challenges, compared with our parents’ generations. And if you couple this with the rapidly rising cost of raising a child in Canada today, it can be astronomical to successfully conceive for those experiencing fertility problems. Between consultations, testing and procedures, the average cost of just one round of IVF, for example, can cost upwards of $20,000 including medication—and that’s with no guarantee that it will even work. Success rates are only between 30 and 40 percent for those under the age of 35. For those over 35, it falls even more drastically to between five and 20 percent.

Even in Canada, where healthcare usually costs me nothing, once we started on our journey to become parents, I found myself paying $100 per appointment for consultations, genetic testing up to $350, donor material at nearly $3,000, and $950 per IUI procedure. These costs rack up extremely quickly and can make the dream of parenthood unattainable for many couples.

Enabling families to flourish 

It’s estimated that around one in six couples in Canada experience infertility. Increasing awareness and understanding of potential fertility issues has, thankfully, helped. More employers now offer benefits that cover aspects of fertility treatments like IVF and IUI.  And for me, knowing in advance that I would need this support at the age of just 18, I was already assessing potential employers on the merits of their benefits packages.

Fortunately, I was already employed by a company I love and that also happens to offer robust fertility benefits. All Starbucks employees who work a minimum of 20 hours per week are entitled to:

• A maximum of $25,000 in IVF treatment and $10,000 for medication, for a total of $35,000 in potential insurance coverage
• A maximum of $40,000 in benefits for intra-uterine inception (IUI) treatments

This was a huge relief for my partner and me at a very stressful and emotionally-charged time. Looking back, my fertility journey began in earnest when I started working with Starbucks.

Other companies offering great benefits

TD Bank offers up to $60,000 coverage for treatments and medication. Pinterest grants 20 weeks’ bonding leave, in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) coverage and egg freezing. TELUS offers $15,000 for benefits in the form of treatment procedures and fertility drugs. American Express provides a complete reimbursement of surrogacy, adoption or fertility treatment up to $35,000. And just last year, Microsoft committed to offering up to $15,000 in medications and procedures, including IVF-related expenses.

Translating words into action

After just over a year of testing and IUI treatment, we were lucky to welcome our baby Brynn into our family in 2022.

It’s not a stretch to say that working for Starbucks truly enabled my partner and I to fulfil our dream of being parents. We have firsthand experience of how difficult the fertility system can be to access and navigate in Canada, especially for queer folks. Without my employment benefits, we would have been waiting for years to save up enough money to welcome our baby into the world.

I cannot emphasize this enough: employers can make a tangible, real-life difference to their employees’ well-being, and can truly help them live their most authentic, joyful lives.

Every June for Pride brands and organizations of all shapes and sizes highlight their commitment to our community. If I had one wish, it would be that these brands match their words with action, recognize the unique challenges that people like my partner and I face, and do all that they can to support their employees who find themselves in similar situations. And not just in the summer—all year long.

Not only is this a clear commitment to the queer community but it also helps to normalize fertility treatment and challenges in the workplace. My little family, thriving and full of joy, is a testament to the positive power of workplaces putting their employees first and helping them to live fuller lives. Let’s hope more employers will do the same.