The Fight for Reproductive Rights & Affordable Fertility Treatment

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Dr. Lawrence B. Werlin, MD, FACOG of HRC Fertility (@md.lawrence.werlin on TikTok), discusses the challenges of addressing fertility misinformation on social media. He emphasizes the importance of providing accurate and reliable information and encourages patients to consult with healthcare professionals. He also discusses the ethical considerations of using social media to share personal and professional experiences in the field of fertility.

How can we make advanced fertility treatments more accessible and affordable for a wider range of patients?

Well, in California, they're working very hard to do that, as I'm sure you know, they have passed a bill, the specifics of which we're not 100% clear about, but offering insurance coverage for fertility care — which is very important. It's one thing to offer it in an insurance versus mandating it to occur. And the mandate is now available in California or will become available, and that really allows more people to have the ability to utilize fertility care.

Secondly, there are many companies, companies like Apple, Amazon, different large companies that offer their employees benefits like fertility preservation, where they have these young people who are in these jobs, who may not be ready to have a family yet, who may not even have a partner but enjoy doing what they're doing, they're looking at their profession and they're offering them the ability to do fertility preservation, which means freezing their eggs at a young age. And as we said, as you age, the genetic material within those eggs breaks down. They become less viable, less functional, less likely to be successful. So here you're offering them something where they can freeze it in their 20s, or in their early 30s. And may not ever need to use them, but if they did, when they use them, they will be the age at what it was when they froze them, which is phenomenal. And many of the large companies in the country are offering that now to their group.

The final thing, I think that's important, is this has been obviously a very tumultuous year for our field, with many things happening politically, and I think one of the most important things that you can do as the individual is to continue to contact your legislators and encourage them to continue to fight for your reproductive rights, because those are your rights, your ability to choose to get pregnant without someone else telling you what to do. It's important without government interference with that. So you need to take the reins as the individual and continue to promote that. I think those are key things.