The World Health Organization says roughly one in six worldwide experience infertility.
This week is National Infertility Awareness Week. A West Bloomfield woman who struggled with infertility herself is trying to help others.
These days Lauren Clements’ afternoons are filled with hairstyling and dressing up. It’s exactly what she prayed for through three years of infertility struggles.
“We were young,” said Clements. “We were 27 years old. I never thought that it was going to take the length of time it did.”
Clements found out her tubes were blocked, and she had to have them surgically removed.
She and her husband Justin did one round of IVF, which worked, but they later suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage. Round two of IVF was a success.
Their 3-year-old twin girls are named Bristol and Saylor. They are the light at the end of a long tunnel, but Lauren said even in the dark times, she thought, ‘How can I help others?’”
“A round of IVF is $15-20K depending on a lot of factors,” Lauren said. “I remember saying, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to do this.’ It took us two years to save up every penny we had to go forward with IVF. Even then, I remember having this deep need to help others because I knew I wasn’t alone in struggling financially.”
The Nonprofit, Chosen Infertility, was born out of her house in 2020. It started with support groups online. Then it expanded to raising money to donate a round of IVF to a deserving couple. That happened in 2022, and that couple is now expecting.
“They are due in August,” Lauren said.
Lauren said they all chipped in together when asked how she felt about bringing that joy to a family.
“I don’t personally feel it was me who did it,” Lauren said. “It was a community. All of us did it together.”
Lauren said money should not be a barrier to starting a family.
Chosen Infertility will begin accepting applications for the secondnd IVF grant on May 1.
Click here to apply for the grant or donate to the cause.
To be eligible for the grant, you must have had a consultation with RMA of Michigan in Troy before the deadline of Oct. 1.