![](\"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/06/FF---Quotes-Antonett.png\")
Meet Antonett, a Future Family member from Hayward, California. Antonett underwent 3 IUIs and 3 IVF cycles and is now mom to a beautiful little girl. Her journey is full of patience, determination and grit.
Antonett: I started my loan with Future Family in April 2022. By the time I had gotten introduced to Future Family, I had already been doing the IVF treatment rodeo for nearly two years. I'm lucky to work for an employer that actually covers fertility treatments up to a certain dollar amount, which was the caveat I ran into when I started with Future Family.
I had already done three rounds of IUI, and those failed. We started to investigate why. My doctor did not want to not wait as I was 33-34ish, and pushed me to bank embryos before I turned 35. I was at that critical age where I had a higher chance of success..
So we moved on to the banking embryo stage, and we decided to go forward with IVF. My insurance covered all of the IUI and my first two rounds of IVF, but I ended up needing three rounds in the end. But by the time I was finished with my second round, there was a caveat with my insurance, where they would not cover back-to-back rounds of IVF.
Antonett: I did my first round of IVF, and I ended up with one genetically normal embryo. I wanted to do another cycle to bank at least one more before doing a transfer. I tried to submit a pre-approval through my insurance at that time, and they said ‘No, we're not going to approve the second cycle because you have a viable embryo to transfer. So you have to transfer that one. And if that one fails, then we cover the second round.’ Which is kind of annoying. My doctor and I were not happy about it, but we had to do it this way so I would not have to pay out of pocket. We also thought ‘what if this embryo works out and you do get pregnant, you do have this baby.’ I was okay with only one kid anyway, so let's just try it then we can revisit. So we did the transfer in October 2021 after I had completed my first round of IVF, and it worked. But unfortunately, I lost the pregnancy very early on.
So it was pretty devastating to have to do everything all over again. It really was frustrating. If I would have just listened to the doctor's advice and paid for that 2nd cycle out of pocket, then I wouldn’t have had to go back to the drawing board and do the whole thing all over again.
Antonett: I gave my body about a month to heal. Then at the end of February 2022 my doctor said, ‘if you're mentally ready, we can do this all over again.’ So I did a second round of IVF from February to March 2022 that again yielded one genetically normal embryo. So knowing what I had just gone through, I wasn't going to try to go through a transfer again. If something were to go wrong, then I’d have to go back to the drawing board yet again. That's when I started with Future Family, knowing that my insurance was not going to cover that third round of IVF, and I didn’t have the cash on hand to do another round of IVF without any type of financial help. I didn't really want to ask my family for help because I wasn't very open or forthcoming about doing IVF or any fertility treatment in the first place.
Luckily my clinic, Kindbody San Francisco, already had a partnership with Future Family. That was actually really clutch. It was like, ‘Okay, I want to do this thing, and I already know my insurance is not going to cover it, but I don't want to be inefficient about it. I'm being told if I do this before a certain age, then I have a much higher chance of success.’
Antonett: Kindbody offered fertility assessments without having to be referred to by your doctor, and they worked with my insurance. This allowed me to understand where I was [with my reproductive health], if there was potentially anything wrong. You don't know these things until you go and ask, and my regular doctor was not even willing to do that until I had tried to get pregnant for a year.
I've not had the best experience with OB care. I found it very invasive. I found a lot of doctors don't ask to do procedures on you, they just do them and hope that you're going to tolerate the discomfort. With Kindbody, it was a very different experience. My doctor there always asked for my consent before doing anything. She asked for permission to do things.
With Kindbody, I just got a very good feeling at the start of the whole process, especially after seeing my scans and finding out more about my body. Afterwards, the doctor told me to get dressed, we sat down, and she explained her initial findings, what she saw, and what my options could be.
And it was a good thing that I kept going to them because they ended up discovering, over the two years of treatment, that I actually would not have gotten pregnant without any assistance at all.
Antonett: It turned out I had blockages in my right fallopian tube - residual inflammation and scarring from a ruptured appendix, which wasn't officially diagnosed until after I had done the first round of IVF where I lost the embryo. It was when they had me do more detailed testing that they found it. It was also inflamed and leaking poisonous fluid back into my uterus. So that's why I hadn't been able to get pregnant.
Antonett: Right?! Everything that I learned about my body during that two-year process, that I literally would have never known if I hadn’t gone to this clinic to begin with and gotten all the testing done. If I had listened to my OB who said ‘try for a year and come back to us’ I would have wasted an entire year of my life.
Antonett: it was really easy to set up and get approved. And then I talked to Darin. It was nice to talk to him and then be set up with a fertility coach.
Antonett: Yes, she would check up on me after all of my appointments. Because she's a nurse I would tell her all of the measurements from my appointments and how things were progressing. It was nice to be able to get to that fine level of detail versus if I was talking to a counselor with no medical background.
Antonett: I asked my friend, who got her mortgage through a credit union, if they did smaller loans than mortgages. And it just seemed like I would have to do a lot of work to figure out financing this procedure. Whereas if I went with Future Family who my clinic worked with, it was just all going to be done for me. And at the time, I'd already gone through two rounds of IVF; I didn't want to do a third, but I had to. It was the last thing I wanted to think about–having to seek out a personal loan and compare interest rates and do all of this stuff versus ‘okay, well the clinic already works with this company, and they break down your loan into smaller payments that you can definitely afford.’
Antonett: It was really good. The fertility coaching - just being able to email Katie back and forth about every single appointment, how everything went. And the third round of IVF is what ended up leading to my daughter. That third round of IVF, it was like a perfect storm. Because by then, I had a brand new doctor. She looked at what had been done previously and she changed up a lot of stuff in my protocol actually. Completely new, fresh set of eyes looking at the problem. She ended up doing my fallopian tube removal, to remove the blocked tube.
And then my third round of IVF was super successful. I ended up getting three embryos that were genetically normal and excellent quality. And then one of those excellent embryos ended up being transferred in August of that year. That’s my daughter!
Antonett: I would give her an update after every appointment, every other day until the egg retrieval. Then I let her know about my surgery and gave her updates. After the egg retrieval, updates were a little more sparse, but I would let her know about how I was recovering from my surgery and the plans going forward.
And then at the transfer stage, I started utilizing her a lot more. Because after the transfer, you have to wait 10 days before you find out if you’re pregnant. I was just really paranoid because with the first transfer I felt every symptom in the book. So I was thinking ‘Oh, I'm feeling odd. This must mean it's working.’ Then how it ended was pretty tragic. So then with the second transfer, it was the complete opposite – it happened and then I felt nothing. I just didn't feel any different. It was so weird. I'm like, ‘Oh man, this didn't work.’ Then, I would email Katie with all of my concerns and my anxieties about how I was pretty sure that this transfer didn't work and how I'm going to move forward and everything. Then my clinic called me up after 10 days and said, ‘Hey, here's your level. You are pregnant.’ I said, ‘you're joking. I don't feel anything’ They said, ‘No. Your level is very high. You are definitely pregnant.’ I went in for a follow up blood test 3 days later, and they told me that my number had tripled!
Up until I graduated from Katie's care and from my clinic, I was messaging Katie every two days because every time I felt something new, I'd be like, ‘is this normal?’ Especially when you're so early in your pregnancy. People don't talk about it that early with others, when you're like five, six weeks pregnant. Some people don't even know that they're pregnant at five or six weeks, but when you're a fertility patient, you're told you're pregnant before you realize you're pregnant.
Antonett: The loan itself and the payments and how it is broken down for me. For people who have to pay for multiple rounds of IVF out of pocket, it's definitely making it so much more accessible. Because you have to pay essentially another car payment for another five years, maybe a little bit more, which is financially more feasible than coughing up $16,000-$20,000 all at once or sticking that on your credit card.
Antonett: Yeah for sure. Because you either have to pay off that entire balance by the due date or you're stuck with a way higher interest rate.
Antonett: Throughout this whole process I've learned way more about my own anatomy. And if anything, it makes me a little mad that when you're going through the US education system they do not teach people more about reproduction.
I've learned so much about reproduction, how it works, and all the ins and outs of it. I had to learn all of that while going through this process versus learning it in school.
Antonett: Definitely not to give up. For a lot of people that go through fertility treatments, it's not just like you're going to do one procedure and then BAM! It worked for you. It really is something that you just have to stick with, and it can be a long process.
Ready to start your fertility journey? Take 90 seconds to prequalify for a loan today. It's free and does not affect your credit score.
","url":"https://blog.futurefamily.com/sharing-the-future-family-experience-antonett/","uuid":"14f6396b-7872-4734-8c01-6a33d71822ae","page":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_styles":null,"comment_id":"6488ad2a44fca50001315931"}},{"node":{"id":"Ghost__Post__6478c30a57180f0001e9e5f9","title":"Sharing Your Future Family Experience - Lauren & Natalie","slug":"sharing-your-future-family-experience-lauren-natalie","featured":true,"feature_image":"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/06/The-Future-Family-Experience---Lauren---Natalie.png","excerpt":"Meet Future Family members Lauren and Natalie from Stockbridge, Georgia. With Natalie by her side, Lauren underwent 3 cycles of IUI and 1 cycle of IVF. Lauren is now pregnant with a baby girl!","custom_excerpt":"Meet Future Family members Lauren and Natalie from Stockbridge, Georgia. With Natalie by her side, Lauren underwent 3 cycles of IUI and 1 cycle of IVF. Lauren is now pregnant with a baby girl!","created_at_pretty":"Jun 01, 2023","published_at_pretty":"Jun 01, 2023","updated_at_pretty":"Jun 06, 2023","created_at":"2023-06-01T09:10:50.000-07:00","published_at":"2023-06-01T10:20:59.000-07:00","updated_at":"2023-06-06T10:17:52.000-07:00","meta_title":"Sharing Your Future Family Experience - Lauren & Natalie | Future Family","meta_description":"Meet our members Lauren and Natalie. Lauren underwent 3 cycles of IUI and 1 cycle of IVF. Lauren is now pregnant with a baby girl.","og_description":null,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"authors":[{"name":"Jean-Marc Ly","slug":"jean","bio":null,"profile_image":null,"twitter":null,"facebook":null,"website":null}],"primary_author":{"name":"Jean-Marc Ly","slug":"jean","bio":null,"profile_image":null,"twitter":null,"facebook":null,"website":null},"primary_tag":{"name":"member stories","slug":"member-stories","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},"tags":[{"name":"member stories","slug":"member-stories","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},{"name":"Stories","slug":"stories","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},{"name":"Customer Success","slug":"customer-success","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},{"name":"IUI","slug":"iui","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},{"name":"IVF","slug":"ivf","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"}],"plaintext":"Meet Future Family members Lauren and Natalie from Stockbridge, Georgia. Lauren\nis the co-director of a local preschool and the financial controller at her\nchurch. Natalie has been a teacher and sports coach for over 19 years. With\nNatalie by her side, Lauren underwent 3 cycles of IUI and 1 cycle of IVF.\n Lauren is now pregnant with a baby girl!\n\nWhat made you decide that Future Family was the right option for you?\nLauren: There were three financing companies we were looking into, and we\nimmediately nixed one because they didn't do any medication coverage. They would\ngive you money, but you couldn't use it for medications and those are a major\nexpense in this process. So I was looking at you guys and another one and\nprobably what got me was Ryan (Fertility Finance Specialist) who is on the front\nlines. We just filled out the simple pre-approval application\n[https://app.futurefamily.com/apply/sign-up/?utm_medium=blog] to see what we\ncould possibly get. Immediately, that night he reached out and introduced\nhimself ‘I’m with Future Family. I would like to talk to you guys more and let\nyou know about what we can offer you.’ That other company, I didn't hear\nanything from them and it seems like more of a straight up loan, and that's it.\nBecause they don't specialize in fertility loans.\n\nI think Ryan got me big time. In our call with him, he went over everything. It\njust made complete sense to go with the company who specializes in this. Plus,\nhe gave us background on your founder, and that the majority of people who work\nfor Future Family have had some type of personal experience with infertility. It\nseemed like, ‘Well, if you've been through it, then you know. You're probably\ngonna get much better customer service because they understand exactly what\nyou're going through.’\n\nNatalie: Yeah, we had a really great conversation with Ryan. I think the whole\npackage makes sense, but he really brought us in. It's the people in your\ncompany. They really drive this and are all the moving parts of everything like\nordering stuff and staying on top of everything. Ryan, that night, was super\nnice and took his time talking to us. When you personalize things like that\nyou're gonna get people to want to work with you.\n\nLauren: Especially because we had no education until now. We knew we needed a\nloan, but the only kind of loan we've ever needed before was a car loan. So it's\na little bit different, right? So just being there to provide that education\nthat we needed, we were sold.\n\nDid you consider using another type of loan or credit card?\nLauren: Yeah, we had thought about getting a personal loan and previously had\nsome credit card debt that we had recently got out of. I was not getting back\ninto that. While it wasn't a lot, we weren’t doing it again because it used to\ndrive me absolutely insane. So after getting that debt paid off we said, this is\nnot something we want to do again. We didn't even know that fertility loans were\nout there. We were thinking more along the lines of a personal loan through our\ncredit union or something like that. So we started realizing that there were\nother things that we could do. That fertility loan was the only other option\nthat we were going to look into.\n\nWe are faith-based people and doing this process was more financially stressing.\nWe prayed about it a lot and it felt like God was going to lead us down the\nright path, and it was like right after that, Future Family came into the\npicture. Ryan went over what we would qualify for, what we could get, all of our\ndocuments, what we would be paying monthly. And when we heard that number, it\nwas like that's it. We can totally do this, we can pay over that some months so\nthat just solidified everything. \n\nNatalie: It was just a seamless process and the numbers added up. So it just\nmade sense. It was like everything just aligned and when it lines up like that\nyou just want to go with that.\n\nHow was your experience with Future Family?\nLauren: It's been nothing but wonderful. One of the greatest services is that\nyou're gonna have a fertility coach available to you while you're going through\nthis process, and I can remember looking at Natalie and asking ‘why would we\nneed one?’ Because we had such great nurses that were so responsive to us at the\nclinic. So we were just like, ‘Oh well, okay, you know, that's a perk we’ll\nprobably never use but alright, thanks for letting us know.’ Yeah, but our\nopinion changed on that real quick after we met with Laura and we had our call\nwith her.\n\nLaura is fantastic and has a wonderful personality and she's hilarious! We text\nlike we're friends, I said, ‘you could either win an Oscar or you truly do care\nabout your patients!’ Because I mean, she is so dedicated to what she does. And\nthere were so many times that she would remind me, ‘Okay? Let me know how your\nappointment goes today,’ Before I even said it, I knew I was on her schedule and\neverything. Some of those questions you don't want to feel like you are bugging\nyour nurses, but you've got things going on in your mind that you forgot to ask.\nAnd we always knew that we could reach out to her and ask her anything. And she\ngave us so much advice and just eased our minds about so many different things.\nYou know, we're pregnant now so we're kind of off of her schedule but she says\nwe can keep in touch, so we're really happy about that. And using MDR as the\npharmacy, our fertility clinic actually is a partner with them as well. So we\ngot a bigger discount being RBA patients and Future Family members. The fact\nthat you all are linked up with MDR pharmacy, we don't have to worry about\nanything; the bill is paid, everything is just seamless. You guys thought about\neverything.\n\nNatalie: Just every little part that goes along with your company makes sense.\nLaura became like part of our family. And this journey is such an important part\nof our life to a child. The fact that we had someone like Laura is a huge\nselling point. If I could push that even more for people, that alone is\npriceless. It really is really priceless and while we reached out to our clinic\nfor certain things, honestly, Laura was on speed dial with Lauren. As far as\ntexting wise, when we would receive news about certain things, appointments, and\nwe got the pregnancy news, Laura was one of the first people we reached out to.\nWe thought about our parents, of course and our family, but then it was Laura.\nThat just shows you how meaningful that relationship is. Obviously it's her,\nbut it's y'all. Y'all invest in the right people in the right place. And you\nreally know how this is an important journey. You probably have tons of clients\nbut you make it feel like it's about us and that is how a good company is run.\n\nWhat makes the fertility coaches at Future Family different?\nLauren: You don't realize you need it until it's there. You've automatically had\nsomebody that becomes your biggest cheerleader and your Google anytime you have\na question. She was so knowledgeable about anything and everything we asked her\nabout. Even when we had a question about finance, which I realize we weren’t\nsupposed to ask about, she would get the answer for us. You notice there were no\nlimits to what she could find out and convey for us. There was never a time\nwhere she said ‘Oh actually that's the billing department and you can follow\nthis link to get there.’ She made us comfortable and we trusted her right off\nthe bat and it eased our minds through every single appointment. We loved the\nhonesty. We loved the peace of mind that she provided. And just knowing that she\nwas in our corner cheering for us on every single thing.\n\nNatalie: There's so much you can find on Google but you end up getting more\nconfused because there's so much information. You can call your fertility clinic\nbut you may have to send them a message, and ours was great and we're very\nthankful for that, but maybe they'll have to get back to us. But it is not like\nthey're going to call us back, they might send us a message. With Laura, she was\nlike ‘anything you need.’ People don't realize that when you go through\nsomething that costs a lot of money and is so emotionally and physically\ndraining as it is– all that stuff is so much easier when you have someone like\nLaura. Knowing that she was relieved about all the questions and whatnot– that\nis huge and you cannot put a price on that.\n\nLauren: I can't tell you how many times I reached out to her, sending her a text\nknowing that it was late and wouldn't expect to hear back from her until the\nmorning. I get the automated response back. And not 10 minutes later, she had\nsent me a text back. So, she truly was there any time I needed her, within\nreason. Laura became part of our family. And I love the relationship that we\nhave. I love that she allows us to keep it open and we can still chat with her\nand send her updates. She says that's one of the best parts of her job.\n\nNatalie: Another thing that you all do really well, that people don't\nunderstand, is all the moving parts that go along with her fertility. As far as,\nthis calls for this direction and another thing a different direction; you all\nmake all these directions go into a one one lane way and it's so easy. And so\nwhen you do something like that and you make things easy for people that have\nenough going on in their life. And you make this process seamless, whether it\nbe with ordering the medication, or the moving parts of the funds. It just all\nworks together and that cohesiveness that you have with the company and in\nadding in Laura, it just makes sense and it just works. For people that go to\nanother company that only says, ‘Here's your money. Good luck. Figure it out,’\nyou are completely missing out on a company that really invests in their\npatients and really cares. Yeah, it takes a lot of the responsibility off of us,\nhaving to do our research and figure out all this stuff because y'all have\nalready done it all. It would be one thing if you promised something and you\ncouldn't deliver. But from the get-go we have found out that on every single\nturn, everything that Ryan said has come to fruition. So everything has been as\nit was promised and as it was stated, nothing was oversold. Every expectation\nthat we could have had was met and exceeded and I mean Laura's fantastic but\nyou, Future Family as a whole, is just fantastic. \n\nDid you encounter any barriers along the way?\nNatalie: Being a same sex couple, I think things could be easier. There are\nstill barriers like insurance and that sucks and it hurts. We are legally\nmarried now, and I'm very thankful for that, but there are so many more of us\nwho are married that want to have children and can't. And things are made more\ndifficult when you could make it a little bit easier, because you're making it\neasier for heterosexual couples. Hopefully more ground will open up on that\navenue.\n\nWhat advice would you give to others going through this process?\nLauren: It's much easier to go through if you have faith. The doctors can give\nyou all the stats, they can give you all the percentages, but you just have to\nknow that everybody's case is completely individualized. You've got to take\neverything as it comes. We took the mindset of not taking everything to heart.\nNot taking it personally. We were going to keep doing what we needed to do and\nkeep a positive mindset, taking each day as it comes and keep pushing forward.\nAnd that's really what we did. We just took it one day at a time. I mean three\nfailed IUIs before IVF, is not fun and midway through that, I had a night where\nI felt like a failure, you know? I am doing everything that I'm supposed to be\ndoing and this is not working. We had to have a conversation and Natalie said ‘\nit's not you, you're not doing anything wrong, don't feel that way.” You just\nhave to take it as it comes, because when one door closes, another door opens.\nJust don't give up. If this is truly your dream, don't stop until you don't have\nany more options or it isn't safe. Just don't give up.\n\nNatalie: Be open to options, as far as everything because it's such an important\njourney, whether you're heterosexual or homosexual or by yourself. Just be open\nto the options and really dive into the avenues of your due diligence. Look at\nthe whole picture and not because this company says this is cheaper to go with\nthem. You get what you pay for. Keep your mind open. This is an important\njourney so you're not going to put your child, or your wife, or your spouse, or\nyour partner into any situation you wouldn't want to be in. You wouldn't buy a\ncar that wasn't safe for you to be in. So why would you, in such an important\njourney like this, put your money and time into a company that you didn't know\nwas going to be 100% in it with you.. Take the resources, utilize them,\nunderstand them, ask questions when you need to, be okay with what life brings\nat you. Be open minded about things.\n\nWe had some setbacks but now we are so blessed to be pregnant. Take it as it\ncomes and invest in what you're going to do, which is having a child. Invest in\nthe right people that are going to support you.\n\nWhat is something that you learn, whether it's about yourself, the process or\nyour partner throughout this whole process?\nLauren: I have learned so much about the female body through this experience. We\nboth feel like we've taken a class in health and anatomy. Everybody knows where\nbabies come from, but this process is a learning process; every little thing\nthat goes into it has been truly just eye opening and it's miraculous. When\npeople say childbirth is a miracle, it truly is, because the way science has\ncome along, different drugs can manipulate your body to behave the way that it\ndoes and everything line up the right way. I know it's been done for quite a\nwhile but it's still mind-blowing to me. That was one of the really cool things\nabout this whole process is just learning because it's such a specialty subject.\nUnless you're involved in it, you don't know all the moving parts and that\nlearning has been mind-blowing to me.\n\nNatalie: I've learned I can school people on information that I've gotten from\nthis process. Another thing I've learned is that just because you have one\nsupport base, doesn't mean that more support bases aren’t needed. The more\nsupport you have, the better, and the quality of the support is important. We\nhave our parents and people like them, that are important, but with all of the\nmoving parts involved in fertility treatment, you may need professional support. \n You do need a lot of support with something as big as this.\n\nLauren: We both learned to include a select few people, even if they were in our\ninner circle, in this journey. But I think we realized that we truly have more\nsupport than we thought we did. We grew up in the Deep South, both of our\nparents had issues with our sexuality and we go to a Methodist church. Atlanta\nis a different ball game than here. We are a whole lot more open down here than\nwe used to be but family was a big barrier for a long time. And going through\nthis journey has really opened our eyes that we do have more support than we\nthought. We have a lot of friends who are just over the moon excited for us, and\ntelling us y'all are going to be amazing moms, and we can't wait. And one of the\ntruly amazing things that have come out of this besides the fact that both of\nour parents are really excited now, so that's great too. This whole process has\nbrought us closer with a lot of different people. And it's just great because\nour friends, and we have all different kinds of friends, and they’ve united all\naround this one thing and it's been really great.\n\n\nCongratulations and thank you Lauren and Natalie for sharing your story with us. \nLearn more about Fertility Coach Laura\n[/meet-the-future-family-team-laura-weppler/] and Finance Specialist Ryan\n[/meet-the-future-family-team-ryan-tibbetts/] on our blog. \n\nReady to start your fertility journey? Take 2 minutes to prequalify for a loan\ntoday [https://app.futurefamily.com/apply/sign-up/?utm_medium=blog]. It's free\nand does not affect your credit score.","html":"Meet Future Family members Lauren and Natalie from Stockbridge, Georgia. Lauren is the co-director of a local preschool and the financial controller at her church. Natalie has been a teacher and sports coach for over 19 years. With Natalie by her side, Lauren underwent 3 cycles of IUI and 1 cycle of IVF. Lauren is now pregnant with a baby girl!
Lauren: There were three financing companies we were looking into, and we immediately nixed one because they didn't do any medication coverage. They would give you money, but you couldn't use it for medications and those are a major expense in this process. So I was looking at you guys and another one and probably what got me was Ryan (Fertility Finance Specialist) who is on the front lines. We just filled out the simple pre-approval application to see what we could possibly get. Immediately, that night he reached out and introduced himself ‘I’m with Future Family. I would like to talk to you guys more and let you know about what we can offer you.’ That other company, I didn't hear anything from them and it seems like more of a straight up loan, and that's it. Because they don't specialize in fertility loans.
I think Ryan got me big time. In our call with him, he went over everything. It just made complete sense to go with the company who specializes in this. Plus, he gave us background on your founder, and that the majority of people who work for Future Family have had some type of personal experience with infertility. It seemed like, ‘Well, if you've been through it, then you know. You're probably gonna get much better customer service because they understand exactly what you're going through.’
Natalie: Yeah, we had a really great conversation with Ryan. I think the whole package makes sense, but he really brought us in. It's the people in your company. They really drive this and are all the moving parts of everything like ordering stuff and staying on top of everything. Ryan, that night, was super nice and took his time talking to us. When you personalize things like that you're gonna get people to want to work with you.
Lauren: Especially because we had no education until now. We knew we needed a loan, but the only kind of loan we've ever needed before was a car loan. So it's a little bit different, right? So just being there to provide that education that we needed, we were sold.
![](\"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/06/FF---Quotes_Ryan.png\")
Lauren: Yeah, we had thought about getting a personal loan and previously had some credit card debt that we had recently got out of. I was not getting back into that. While it wasn't a lot, we weren’t doing it again because it used to drive me absolutely insane. So after getting that debt paid off we said, this is not something we want to do again. We didn't even know that fertility loans were out there. We were thinking more along the lines of a personal loan through our credit union or something like that. So we started realizing that there were other things that we could do. That fertility loan was the only other option that we were going to look into.
We are faith-based people and doing this process was more financially stressing. We prayed about it a lot and it felt like God was going to lead us down the right path, and it was like right after that, Future Family came into the picture. Ryan went over what we would qualify for, what we could get, all of our documents, what we would be paying monthly. And when we heard that number, it was like that's it. We can totally do this, we can pay over that some months so that just solidified everything.
Natalie: It was just a seamless process and the numbers added up. So it just made sense. It was like everything just aligned and when it lines up like that you just want to go with that.
![](\"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/06/Future-Family_Lauren-and-Nathalie-Collage.png\")
Lauren: It's been nothing but wonderful. One of the greatest services is that you're gonna have a fertility coach available to you while you're going through this process, and I can remember looking at Natalie and asking ‘why would we need one?’ Because we had such great nurses that were so responsive to us at the clinic. So we were just like, ‘Oh well, okay, you know, that's a perk we’ll probably never use but alright, thanks for letting us know.’ Yeah, but our opinion changed on that real quick after we met with Laura and we had our call with her.
Laura is fantastic and has a wonderful personality and she's hilarious! We text like we're friends, I said, ‘you could either win an Oscar or you truly do care about your patients!’ Because I mean, she is so dedicated to what she does. And there were so many times that she would remind me, ‘Okay? Let me know how your appointment goes today,’ Before I even said it, I knew I was on her schedule and everything. Some of those questions you don't want to feel like you are bugging your nurses, but you've got things going on in your mind that you forgot to ask. And we always knew that we could reach out to her and ask her anything. And she gave us so much advice and just eased our minds about so many different things. You know, we're pregnant now so we're kind of off of her schedule but she says we can keep in touch, so we're really happy about that. And using MDR as the pharmacy, our fertility clinic actually is a partner with them as well. So we got a bigger discount being RBA patients and Future Family members. The fact that you all are linked up with MDR pharmacy, we don't have to worry about anything; the bill is paid, everything is just seamless. You guys thought about everything.
Natalie: Just every little part that goes along with your company makes sense. Laura became like part of our family. And this journey is such an important part of our life to a child. The fact that we had someone like Laura is a huge selling point. If I could push that even more for people, that alone is priceless. It really is really priceless and while we reached out to our clinic for certain things, honestly, Laura was on speed dial with Lauren. As far as texting wise, when we would receive news about certain things, appointments, and we got the pregnancy news, Laura was one of the first people we reached out to. We thought about our parents, of course and our family, but then it was Laura. That just shows you how meaningful that relationship is. Obviously it's her, but it's y'all. Y'all invest in the right people in the right place. And you really know how this is an important journey. You probably have tons of clients but you make it feel like it's about us and that is how a good company is run.
![](\"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/06/FF---Quotes--3-.png\")
Lauren: You don't realize you need it until it's there. You've automatically had somebody that becomes your biggest cheerleader and your Google anytime you have a question. She was so knowledgeable about anything and everything we asked her about. Even when we had a question about finance, which I realize we weren’t supposed to ask about, she would get the answer for us. You notice there were no limits to what she could find out and convey for us. There was never a time where she said ‘Oh actually that's the billing department and you can follow this link to get there.’ She made us comfortable and we trusted her right off the bat and it eased our minds through every single appointment. We loved the honesty. We loved the peace of mind that she provided. And just knowing that she was in our corner cheering for us on every single thing.
Natalie: There's so much you can find on Google but you end up getting more confused because there's so much information. You can call your fertility clinic but you may have to send them a message, and ours was great and we're very thankful for that, but maybe they'll have to get back to us. But it is not like they're going to call us back, they might send us a message. With Laura, she was like ‘anything you need.’ People don't realize that when you go through something that costs a lot of money and is so emotionally and physically draining as it is– all that stuff is so much easier when you have someone like Laura. Knowing that she was relieved about all the questions and whatnot– that is huge and you cannot put a price on that.
Lauren: I can't tell you how many times I reached out to her, sending her a text knowing that it was late and wouldn't expect to hear back from her until the morning. I get the automated response back. And not 10 minutes later, she had sent me a text back. So, she truly was there any time I needed her, within reason. Laura became part of our family. And I love the relationship that we have. I love that she allows us to keep it open and we can still chat with her and send her updates. She says that's one of the best parts of her job.
Natalie: Another thing that you all do really well, that people don't understand, is all the moving parts that go along with her fertility. As far as, this calls for this direction and another thing a different direction; you all make all these directions go into a one one lane way and it's so easy. And so when you do something like that and you make things easy for people that have enough going on in their life. And you make this process seamless, whether it be with ordering the medication, or the moving parts of the funds. It just all works together and that cohesiveness that you have with the company and in adding in Laura, it just makes sense and it just works. For people that go to another company that only says, ‘Here's your money. Good luck. Figure it out,’ you are completely missing out on a company that really invests in their patients and really cares. Yeah, it takes a lot of the responsibility off of us, having to do our research and figure out all this stuff because y'all have already done it all. It would be one thing if you promised something and you couldn't deliver. But from the get-go we have found out that on every single turn, everything that Ryan said has come to fruition. So everything has been as it was promised and as it was stated, nothing was oversold. Every expectation that we could have had was met and exceeded and I mean Laura's fantastic but you, Future Family as a whole, is just fantastic.
![](\"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/06/FF---Quotes--1--1.png\")
Natalie: Being a same sex couple, I think things could be easier. There are still barriers like insurance and that sucks and it hurts. We are legally married now, and I'm very thankful for that, but there are so many more of us who are married that want to have children and can't. And things are made more difficult when you could make it a little bit easier, because you're making it easier for heterosexual couples. Hopefully more ground will open up on that avenue.
Lauren: It's much easier to go through if you have faith. The doctors can give you all the stats, they can give you all the percentages, but you just have to know that everybody's case is completely individualized. You've got to take everything as it comes. We took the mindset of not taking everything to heart. Not taking it personally. We were going to keep doing what we needed to do and keep a positive mindset, taking each day as it comes and keep pushing forward. And that's really what we did. We just took it one day at a time. I mean three failed IUIs before IVF, is not fun and midway through that, I had a night where I felt like a failure, you know? I am doing everything that I'm supposed to be doing and this is not working. We had to have a conversation and Natalie said ‘it's not you, you're not doing anything wrong, don't feel that way.” You just have to take it as it comes, because when one door closes, another door opens. Just don't give up. If this is truly your dream, don't stop until you don't have any more options or it isn't safe. Just don't give up.
Natalie: Be open to options, as far as everything because it's such an important journey, whether you're heterosexual or homosexual or by yourself. Just be open to the options and really dive into the avenues of your due diligence. Look at the whole picture and not because this company says this is cheaper to go with them. You get what you pay for. Keep your mind open. This is an important journey so you're not going to put your child, or your wife, or your spouse, or your partner into any situation you wouldn't want to be in. You wouldn't buy a car that wasn't safe for you to be in. So why would you, in such an important journey like this, put your money and time into a company that you didn't know was going to be 100% in it with you.. Take the resources, utilize them, understand them, ask questions when you need to, be okay with what life brings at you. Be open minded about things.
We had some setbacks but now we are so blessed to be pregnant. Take it as it comes and invest in what you're going to do, which is having a child. Invest in the right people that are going to support you.
![](\"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/06/FF---Quotes--2-.png\")
Lauren: I have learned so much about the female body through this experience. We both feel like we've taken a class in health and anatomy. Everybody knows where babies come from, but this process is a learning process; every little thing that goes into it has been truly just eye opening and it's miraculous. When people say childbirth is a miracle, it truly is, because the way science has come along, different drugs can manipulate your body to behave the way that it does and everything line up the right way. I know it's been done for quite a while but it's still mind-blowing to me. That was one of the really cool things about this whole process is just learning because it's such a specialty subject. Unless you're involved in it, you don't know all the moving parts and that learning has been mind-blowing to me.
Natalie: I've learned I can school people on information that I've gotten from this process. Another thing I've learned is that just because you have one support base, doesn't mean that more support bases aren’t needed. The more support you have, the better, and the quality of the support is important. We have our parents and people like them, that are important, but with all of the moving parts involved in fertility treatment, you may need professional support. You do need a lot of support with something as big as this.
Lauren: We both learned to include a select few people, even if they were in our inner circle, in this journey. But I think we realized that we truly have more support than we thought we did. We grew up in the Deep South, both of our parents had issues with our sexuality and we go to a Methodist church. Atlanta is a different ball game than here. We are a whole lot more open down here than we used to be but family was a big barrier for a long time. And going through this journey has really opened our eyes that we do have more support than we thought. We have a lot of friends who are just over the moon excited for us, and telling us y'all are going to be amazing moms, and we can't wait. And one of the truly amazing things that have come out of this besides the fact that both of our parents are really excited now, so that's great too. This whole process has brought us closer with a lot of different people. And it's just great because our friends, and we have all different kinds of friends, and they’ve united all around this one thing and it's been really great.
Learn more about Fertility Coach Laura and Finance Specialist Ryan on our blog.
Ready to start your fertility journey? Take 2 minutes to prequalify for a loan today. It's free and does not affect your credit score.
","url":"https://blog.futurefamily.com/sharing-your-future-family-experience-lauren-natalie/","uuid":"44ee10ea-f544-433a-a448-5fded5bb2f0e","page":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_styles":null,"comment_id":"6478c30a57180f0001e9e5f9"}},{"node":{"id":"Ghost__Post__644a9a728978e70001f9c9a3","title":"What To Know About Fertility Treatment (IUI and IVF) For a Single Woman & How To Know If It's Right For You","slug":"what-to-know-about-fertility-treatment-iui-and-ivf-for-a-single-woman-how-to-know-if-its-right-for-you","featured":false,"feature_image":"https://d2otz9izzt81os.cloudfront.net/2023/04/Future-Family-Blog---What-to-know-about-Fertility-Treatment-for-Single-Woman-1.jpg","excerpt":"At Future Family, our goal is to help every person achieve their family goals regardless of their circumstances or relationship status. Single women have safe and effective ways to start their journey to motherhood.","custom_excerpt":"At Future Family, our goal is to help every person achieve their family goals regardless of their circumstances or relationship status. Single women have safe and effective ways to start their journey to motherhood.","created_at_pretty":"Apr 27, 2023","published_at_pretty":"Apr 27, 2023","updated_at_pretty":"Mar 08, 2024","created_at":"2023-04-27T08:53:22.000-07:00","published_at":"2023-04-27T09:24:34.000-07:00","updated_at":"2024-03-08T14:55:16.000-08:00","meta_title":"Fertility Treatment (IUI and IVF) For a Single Woman | Future Family","meta_description":"Are you a single woman hoping to become a mother? Future Family can help make that dream. Find out if Fertility treatments (IUI or IVF) are right for you.","og_description":null,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"authors":[{"name":"Jean-Marc Ly","slug":"jean","bio":null,"profile_image":null,"twitter":null,"facebook":null,"website":null}],"primary_author":{"name":"Jean-Marc Ly","slug":"jean","bio":null,"profile_image":null,"twitter":null,"facebook":null,"website":null},"primary_tag":{"name":"Fertility Treatment","slug":"fertility-treatment","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},"tags":[{"name":"Fertility Treatment","slug":"fertility-treatment","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},{"name":"IVF","slug":"ivf","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"},{"name":"IUI","slug":"iui","description":null,"feature_image":null,"meta_description":null,"meta_title":null,"visibility":"public"}],"plaintext":"At Future Family, our goal is to help every person achieve their family goals\nregardless of their circumstances or relationship status. Thanks to modern\nreproductive technology, single women have safe and effective ways to start\ntheir journey to motherhood when they are ready, or preserve their fertility\noptions for the future. \n\nFertility Treatment Options For Single Women\nThere are 2 main fertility treatment options for single women who want to\nconceive a baby:\n\nIntrauterine Insemination\n[/the-definitive-guide-to-intrauterine-insemination-iui/] (IUI): Also referred\nto as artificial insemination, IUI is a relatively simple procedure. Sperm is\ncleaned, concentrated, loaded into a catheter and placed directly in the uterus\naround the time the ovary releases one or more eggs to be fertilized. \n\nIUI is the less invasive and less expensive fertility option. However, there can\nbe a higher risk of multiples (twins, triplets or more) and the success rate\ntends to be lower than IVF.\n\nIn Vitro Fertilization [/how-long-does-ivf-take-a-timeline/] (IVF): IVF is a\nmore advanced treatment that involves stimulating egg production, retrieving\neggs, fertilizing them with sperm in a lab, and finally transferring a resulting\nembryo into the intended mother or a surrogate. \n\nA single woman who doesn’t want to become pregnant right away, but wants to\nincrease her chances for a successful pregnancy later in life might consider \negg\nfreezing\n[/is-egg-freezing-covered-by-insurance-what-you-need-to-know-future-family/]– a\ntreatment in which eggs are retrieved, frozen and stored for later use. \n\nIt’s important to talk to your doctor about which option is best for you– based\non your age, test results and family goals. If you need help finding a fertility\ndoctor and clinic near you, check out our helpful search tool, CareMatch\n[https://carematch.futurefamily.com/], and this guide\n[/how-to-find-a-fertility-clinic-thats-right-for-you/] to selecting the right\ncare center for you. \n\nSperm Donor Options\nThe other major consideration for a single woman thinking about fertility\ntreatment is the sperm donor. You’ll want to ask yourself a couple key\nquestions: Do you want sperm to come from someone you know, or do you prefer to\nuse a sperm bank? \n\nA known sperm donor (also called a directed donor) may offer some women a sense\nof comfort and familiarity– you know firsthand the background, personality and\nlifestyle of your donor. But a known donor can also be more complicated legally\nand emotionally, especially in terms of the donor’s role in your child’s life.\nOn the other hand, if you choose an anonymous donor from a sperm bank, you will\nonly get the general information and profile provided by the facility. You won’t\nknow specifics about the donor’s identity– but the legal issues are clear cut. \n\nPaying For Fertility Treatment\nAs you think through your treatment and donor options, you’ll want to consider\nthe financial implications as well. Prices will vary depending on your\nparticular treatment plan, but here are some approximate costs:\n\n * One Cycle of IUI: $500 - $4,000 depending on medications, monitoring & blood\n work needed.\n * One Cycle of IVF: $15,000 - $20,000+\n * Sperm Donor: A vial of sperm ranges from $400 - $2,000\n\nUnfortunately, for the majority of Americans, fertility treatment is not covered\nby insurance. But there are simple, low-risk ways to manage the cost of\nfertility treatment. Future Family\n[https://www.futurefamily.com/?utm_medium=blog] offers flexible financing plans\nwith interest rates as low as 0% APR to those who qualify. Our Fertility Finance\nSpecialists can walk you through your options and help you bundle all your\nfertility expenses into one easy monthly payment.\n\nFuture Family members are paired with a dedicated Fertility Coach – each a\nRegistered Nurse who can support you medically and emotionally through each\nphase of your treatment. \n\nIf you are ready to start your fertility journey, contact us\n[financing@futurefamily.com] today to learn more or prequalify for a Future\nFamily loan today [https://app.futurefamily.com/apply/sign-up/?utm_medium=blog]!","html":"At Future Family, our goal is to help every person achieve their family goals regardless of their circumstances or relationship status. Thanks to modern reproductive technology, single women have safe and effective ways to start their journey to motherhood when they are ready, or preserve their fertility options for the future.
There are 2 main fertility treatment options for single women who want to conceive a baby:
Intrauterine Insemination (IUI): Also referred to as artificial insemination, IUI is a relatively simple procedure. Sperm is cleaned, concentrated, loaded into a catheter and placed directly in the uterus around the time the ovary releases one or more eggs to be fertilized.
IUI is the less invasive and less expensive fertility option. However, there can be a higher risk of multiples (twins, triplets or more) and the success rate tends to be lower than IVF.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): IVF is a more advanced treatment that involves stimulating egg production, retrieving eggs, fertilizing them with sperm in a lab, and finally transferring a resulting embryo into the intended mother or a surrogate.
A single woman who doesn’t want to become pregnant right away, but wants to increase her chances for a successful pregnancy later in life might consider egg freezing– a treatment in which eggs are retrieved, frozen and stored for later use.
It’s important to talk to your doctor about which option is best for you– based on your age, test results and family goals. If you need help finding a fertility doctor and clinic near you, check out our helpful search tool, CareMatch, and this guide to selecting the right care center for you.
The other major consideration for a single woman thinking about fertility treatment is the sperm donor. You’ll want to ask yourself a couple key questions: Do you want sperm to come from someone you know, or do you prefer to use a sperm bank?
A known sperm donor (also called a directed donor) may offer some women a sense of comfort and familiarity– you know firsthand the background, personality and lifestyle of your donor. But a known donor can also be more complicated legally and emotionally, especially in terms of the donor’s role in your child’s life. On the other hand, if you choose an anonymous donor from a sperm bank, you will only get the general information and profile provided by the facility. You won’t know specifics about the donor’s identity– but the legal issues are clear cut.
As you think through your treatment and donor options, you’ll want to consider the financial implications as well. Prices will vary depending on your particular treatment plan, but here are some approximate costs:
Unfortunately, for the majority of Americans, fertility treatment is not covered by insurance. But there are simple, low-risk ways to manage the cost of fertility treatment. Future Family offers flexible financing plans with interest rates as low as 0% APR to those who qualify. Our Fertility Finance Specialists can walk you through your options and help you bundle all your fertility expenses into one easy monthly payment.
Future Family members are paired with a dedicated Fertility Coach – each a Registered Nurse who can support you medically and emotionally through each phase of your treatment.
If you are ready to start your fertility journey, contact us today to learn more or prequalify for a Future Family loan today!