When it comes to building families and talking about their challenges, some high-profile celebrities are raising awareness about what it takes to have children.
Take TV Sports journalist Jenna Wolfe and her partner Stephanie Gosk. For years they struggled with fertility and have been public about their journey to build a family. However, they are not alone. Other celebrities have been public about their family-building journey, including having children via surrogacy and adoption, like Melissa Etheridge, Wanda Sykes and Cynthia Nixon.
Peter Nieves
These women join the ranks of celebrities who have been public about their family-building journey, including Neil Patrick Harris and Nate Berkus. Nixon and her wife, LGBTQ advocate Christine Marinoni, have three children between them. The former Sex and The City star has two children from a previous relationship. Marioni gave birth to their son, Max Ellington, in 2011. Fitness guru Jillian Michaels has two children with yoga instructor Heidi Rhoades Michaels. The couple adopted their daughter, Lukensia, from Haiti in 2012. Rhoades gave birth to their son, Phoenix, that same week.
The financial burden to obtaining infertility treatments is high. These range from $12,000 to $30,000 for in vitro fertilization, and $90,000 to $130,000 for surrogacy. Adoption can be up to $50,000. Not everyone can obtain fertility benefits as easily as those who are rich and famous.
Large corporations are taking notice of this issue. To combat this problem, in recent years corporations and businesses around the United States have stepped up to offer fertility benefits to employees. Not only do businesses feel pressure to offer benefits that are inclusive to all employees, the competition to attract and retain top talent has become a literal race for best-in-class benefits.
For example, companies like Spotify, Conair, Johnson & Johnson and Chanel offer competitive family-building benefits. Starbucks recently announced expanded fertility benefits to assist employees whose needs aren’t met by health insurance coverage. According to Peter Nieves, Chief Operating Officer at WINFertility, a managed fertility benefits company based in Greenwich, Connecticut, these include benefits that are especially important to LGBTQ+ couples.
“We also see more employers waiving the definition of infertility as part of their benefit design in an effort to be more inclusive,” says Nieves. To that end, WINFertility provides patient advocacy and emotional support, along with key benefits (egg and sperm freezing, fertility treatments, reproductive behavioral health, genetic testing, adoption, and surrogacy).
Other entertainment companies also offer competitive family-building benefits. Viacom reimburses its employees for in IVF, egg freezing, surrogacy expenses, and other fertility costs. Snap’s family benefits include adoption, surrogacy, infertility, and fertility preservation benefits. The Pinterest benefits page lists egg freezing, surrogacy, fertility, and adoption benefits.
The Family Equality Council (FEC), a national American nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance legal and lived equality for LGBTQ+ families, studied the landscape of family-building for LGBTQ+ adults in America today. The report revealed an inspiring trend: the number of LGBTQ+ families in the United States is set to grow dramatically in the coming years. In fact, the report states 77 percent of LGBTQ+ millennials (ages 18-35) are already parents or are considering having children – a 44 percent increase over previous generations.
To learn what family-building benefits your company offers, Nieves suggests people contact their employer’s human resources department and ask for details. If your employer does not offer any, FamilyEquality.org has a variety of resources available to LGBTQ+ couples interested in family building. Resolve.org, the website of the national infertility association, features personalized information about infertility, as well as links to support groups and local infertility professionals across the United States.