Where someone works can have a significant impact on their healthcare and personal life, especially when it comes to fertility and family forming. Whether or not someone has coverage might determine whether they’ll need to take out a loan before starting their family-forming journey. Workplace flexibility impacts whether taking time off for doctor’s appointments or to meet with an adoption agency will impact someone’s career. Do employees feel comfortable bringing up these topics at work, given their impact? Or do most deal with any challenges behind the scenes?
Carrot collaborated with nonprofit RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association to find out how workplace environments impact employee fertility and family-forming journeys. We surveyed more than 1,000 respondents about their experiences talking about fertility and family forming at work, how they plan to fund their family-forming journeys, and whether or not they have received support from their employer. The result is our first Fertility at Work report.
A few key findings include:
- Just 12% of respondents have access to fertility or family-forming benefits at their current jobs. Of those, half do not feel that their company’s benefits are enough to cover all of their family-forming needs.
- 89% of respondents reported that the fertility and family-forming process has negatively impacted their mental health.
- 88% of respondents would consider changing jobs for fertility benefits.
- 32% said they would go into debt to pay for fertility care not covered by their benefits.
- 31% wouldn’t feel comfortable asking their employer for fertility benefits.
Fertility and family-forming journeys can be expensive, complex, time consuming, and stressful. Our findings underscore the significant impact employers can have by providing support for fertility and family forming journeys — and how important it is to simply start the conversation.
