Olive Fertility Centre congratulates the Ontario government for funding in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for 5000 Ontario patients in 2016.
Ontario is currently the only province that directly funds IVF. 

Dr Jason Hitkari, medical director at Olive Fertility Centre in Vancouver, serves on the board of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS) and Fertility Matters (formerly the Infertility Awareness Association of Canada). He has been advocating for provincial funding for IVF in BC and applauds Ontario for taking the lead in making IVF affordable to more people suffering from infertility. He hopes the BC government will recognize the benefit of funding fertility treatments.

“Infertility is physical condition that takes a large emotional and financial toll on couples and individuals struggling to have a child.” says Dr Hitkari. “It can also be costly for the healthcare system if women give birth to multiples as a result of fertility treatments.  Other countries have shown that funding IVF for single embryo transfer can save health care dollars.”

“Multiples pregnancies (even twins) are much riskier than people think,” says Dr Hitkari. “What people don’t know is that almost 98 percent of the children who are part of a multiple birth are born before nine months and almost always require specialized medical care. Many of these babies have health problems that land them in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit for months. There can be health risks for the mother as well.”

Ontario’s new funding, which stipulates single embryo transfer, will help provide treatment to 5,000 Ontarians per year who are trying to start or expand a family. It will pay for the cost of one in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle per eligible patient per lifetime. Fifty IVF clinics will receive the funding and the doctors will have to decide who will receive the government assisted funding.

Dr Hitkari calls for a made-in-BC approach to providing safe fertility care for British Columbians.
“It really should be a fair process that is objective and either based on specific eligibility criteria or on a lottery type system.”

Olive Fertility Centre is located in Vancouver, BC and is one of Western Canada’s largest IVF and prenatal diagnosis centres. With an advanced IVF lab, and innovative programs that include the EmbryoScope, Comprehensive Chromosome Screening  (CCS), egg freezing, and prenatal NIPT testing, Olive Fertility provides comprehensive fertility care to infertile couples, single women, and same-sex couples.