New Trend: Fertility Treatment Gift Registries

With the average cost of IVF around $12,000, fertility treatments can drain your savings, even putting parenthood out of financial reach for many. But now some couples are asking friends and family to pitch in. Deposit a Gift lets you set up a registry to crowd-fund anything that’s important to you, and couples struggling to conceive have started using it to fund-raise among their network of family and friends. Sign up to donate toward the IVF procedure itself, meds, or even storage of eggs or embryos. Some couples are also using it to fund an adoption. Resolve, the National Infertility Association, lists it among its list of recommended fertility financing programs.

Plus: How Stress Affects Fertility

The site lets couple share their TTC story, keep givers posted on progress, tracks donations and thanks supporters, taking what used to be a very private matter public, although you can password-protect your site. It also opens up a very personal decision to judgments about money choices and the morality of assisted reproduction.

Indiegogo.com and giveforward.com are similar sites that can be used for the same purpose, but like Deposit a Gift, takes a percentage of the funds raised.

Would you crown-fund fertility treatments or an adoption? Leave a comment.