Meet Fertility Alberta

This week's featured partner: the patient-led nonprofit turning Alberta's fertility stories into pressure on government and employers to actually fund fertility care.

Infertility affects 1 in 6 adults globally (WHO, 2023). In Alberta, that works out to roughly 250,000 people, and most are paying for treatment out of pocket. IVF costs about $20,000 a cycle here, and it typically takes two or three cycles to work. Run that math and it's easy to see why people stop before treatment gets them anywhere. Fertility Alberta didn't like that math either, so they're doing something about it.

Who is Fertility Alberta

Fertility Alberta Advocacy & Outreach Association is a volunteer-run, patient-led nonprofit. Every board member has either been through their own fertility journey or is in the middle of one right now. Chair and co-founder Michelle Chidley built the organization on 13 years of her own experience as a patient, fundraiser, and advocate. The rest of the board carries the same pattern: engineers, accountants, writers, and HR professionals who ended up here because a fertility clinic waiting room changed how they saw the system.

Their goal: break down the financial, informational, and systemic barriers keeping Albertans from building the families they're trying to build.

What they're pushing for

Four fronts, at the same time:

Patient engagement. Collecting real stories and real data from...