Lana de Bastiani moved back home to Yellowknife, NWT to start a family 16 years after she left.
“I love living here. I want to raise a family here, just like I was raised here,” said de Bastiani, 33, who met her partner after returning to the Northwest Territories.
After the couple tried for almost three years to get pregnant, de Bastiani was referred to a specialist who diagnosed her with endometriosis, a disease where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside that organ and builds up in the body. Endometriosis affects 50 per cent of women experiencing infertility, according to The Society of Obstetrician and Gynaecologists of Canada.
In the hope of having a child, de Bastiani and her partner decided to undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF), an expensive and time-consuming fertility treatment where eggs are fertilized by sperm in a lab and the resulting embryo is surgically transferred into the uterus. Each IVF treatment cycle takes six to eight weeks, and costs between $10,000 and $20,000. It is not uncommon for women to go through multiple cycles.
Prior to starting IVF, de Bastiani had a specialized ultrasound, the cost of which was covered by the Northwest Territories, including flights, accommodations and the intake appointment at the fertility clinic.
But the Northwest Territories, like a number of other provinces and territories, has no fertility specialists and offers no coverage for IVF treatment or travel to receive that treatment.
