With one-in-six Canadian couples experiencing infertility, advocates try to get attention of politicians
Roughly one-in-six Canadian couples experience infertility; it's a number that has doubled since the 1980s.
Now, those who have experienced it first-hand are bringing attention to the issue, and hope politicians are listening.
As Brittenay Bell gets her son Nathan ready for his afternoon nap, she reflects on the past seven years.
Her 15-month-old son loves to laugh, play with his toys and is starting to walk – moments, Brittenay and her husband Aaron are grateful for.
A few years ago, the couple didn't know if they'd ever be able to experience parenthood.
"We've been through some of our darkest times," she explains. "Both individually and as a couple. Going through it, being told that you have the inability to conceive is nothing that you're prepared for in life."
After trying to conceive naturally for some time, and going through a miscarriage, the pair realized they were faced with fertility challenges.
Treatments began, and eventually Brittenay and Aaron decided to go with in vitro fertilization.
But it wasn't easy.
Brittenay experienced two more miscarriages before Nathan was born, and the cost kept climbing, to $35,000 out of pocket.
"We felt, you know, losing pregnancy, after pregnancy, after pregnancy, was incomparable to anything else that I've ever felt," she explains. "I personally took stress leave from work because the idea of getting up every morning was something that I couldn't even fathom."
Fertility Matters Canada is asking the party that wins the Nova Scotia Provincial Election to consider funding fertility care so that residents can build their families with government support.
"It's not just a woman's health issue, it's not just a heteronormative couples' issue," explains the organization's executive director, Carolynn Dubé. "It also affects the family-building of people of the LGBTQ community and single people who would like to move on to build a family."
Dubé says Nova Scotia is the only Maritime province without some sort of plan in place.
"What that means is people are taking out second mortgages, they're selling their homes, they are not spending money in restaurants, in retail, on travel at home, especially because they're putting all their extra dollars aside to try and have this baby."
Meanwhile, Brittenay says cherished moments with her son make every part of the process worth it.
"At the end of the day," she says. "Everything that we went through to have him, there's no amount of money in the world that I think we wouldn't have been willing to put in, after getting to spend the last year with this little boy."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of ‘Hockey Night in Canada,’ dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.