Louisiana fertility clinic selects patients for free IVF treatment to become parents

Alexia Carey, a 37-year-old social worker, spends her days being the “state mom” for many men, both young and old trying to find their way in the correctional setting.

Carey specializes in crisis and individual counseling at a corrections facility in Baton Rouge for 10 years. She views her patients as her family — her kids. But, she wants to start a family of her own. 

After years of failed relationships and missing “Mr. Right,” the Mandeville native decided she wanted to pursue single motherhood.

“I don’t know that it’s ever the goal to be alone in single parenting,” Carey said. “But as women, we are sometimes left with a choice: Do we decide we want kids, or do we continue to pursue a relationship with the potential of not having kids?”

In 2020, Carey decided to take her commitment to single parenthood seriously. She sought out a fertility clinic in Baton Rouge, found a sperm donor and scheduled an appointment for intrauterine insemination. 

But, when the first session of insemination with a sperm donor did not result in pregnancy, then the next five attempts did not take either, Carey had to take a step back to review her options.

Her doctors recommended that she apply for a Louisiana-based IVF grant program.

Gift of Hope

Fertility Answers, a fertility clinic with full-service clinics in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, was founded in 2002.

The clinic was approached by a national fertility network after Hurricane Katrina to donate fertility treatments to those in need. However, the national service was going to take the donation patients outside of the state. Fertility Answers saw this as an opening to start something similar for Louisianans. 

In 2006, Fertility Answers created the Gift of Hope IVF grant program to help infertile couples and hopeful parents overcome financial and emotional barriers to build their families.

The grant: a free in vitro fertilization cycle.

Unfortunately, many who struggle with infertility cannot afford IVF treatments as it is normally an out-of-pocket expense that insurance does not cover. 

To apply for the free in vitro fertilization cycle grant, applicants must meet certain criteria — a specific financial status, IVF compatibility assessed by clinicians and access to prenatal care if pregnancy occurs.

Then, an independent board chooses the winners.

In 2024, Carey was announced as one of the 2024 grant recipients to receive IVF treatments.

Carey started her IVF cycle in August and will continue the steps toward single parenthood this year. 

“It’s an exciting and also a nerve-wracking process,” Carey said. “It really is a privilege.” 

How the treatment works

Infertility is a reproductive disease defined by the failure to get pregnant after a year of trying. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people globally suffer from infertility — about 6.7 million people. In the United States, according to research published by the National Institutes of Health, about 9% of men and about 11% of women of reproductive age have experienced fertility problems.

In the U.S., pinpointing the infertility issue is divided into three parts:

• In one-third of infertile couples, the problem is with the man.
• In one-third of infertile couples, the problem can’t be identified or is with both the man and woman.
• In one-third of infertile couples, the problem is with the woman.

Studies suggest that after one year of having unprotected sex, 12% to 15% of couples are unable to conceive, and after two years, 10% of couples still have not had a live-born baby. In couples younger than age 30 who are generally healthy, 40% to 60% can conceive in the first three months of trying.

In the IVF treatment, patients go through six steps:

• Ovulation induction. Patients start a daily injection of hormones that stimulate the growth of ovarian follicles — sacs in the ovaries that have the potential to release an egg. In a normal cycle, ovaries will “call-up recruits” each month and send hormones to those follicles to make them mature. Only one will become an egg each month. The additional prescribed hormones tell the ovaries to not only mature one, but a whole bunch of follicles.
• Egg retrieval. After the ovaries have produced several eggs, a doctor will perform an egg retrieval procedure. The patient is put to sleep, and the doctor retrieves the egg follicles through an ultrasound procedure.
• Fertilization. After egg retrieval, the mature eggs will be combined with a partner’s sperm — or in Alexia’s case, donor sperm — in the fertility lab. An embryologist then monitors the growing embryo for five to six days — not all embryos will make it.
• Genetic testing. The fertility clinic will take a few cells on the outside of the embryo (the outer cells that will become the placenta) and send them to a genetics lab. The test is to see if those cells contain the right number of chromosomes — the biggest cause of failure in insemination, according to Fertility Answers.
• Embryo transfer and preservation. After the embryo has been fertilized and tested, the embryo will be transferred back to the patient’s uterus. If the fertilization process yields more than one fertilized embryo, patients can freeze, or cryopreserve, additional embryos.
• Pregnancy test. The physician will order a pregnancy test about 2 weeks after the embryo transfer.

Not all IVF treatments, even the IVF grants, result in pregnancy. Since its launch, the Gift of Hope grant program has awarded 29 couples and patients with IVF treatment — and 13 babies. 

Happy results

Sarah and David Basham met at Central Private School in Central, when they were 14 and 15 years old. They have been together ever since. 

When the pair got married, they started to try for a baby. In that process, Sarah learned that she had PCOS — an ovarian condition that interferes with normal ovulation and increases the difficulty in achieving pregnancy. 

After insemination did not work for the couple, they began to save up for IVF treatment. In 2023, on Sarah Basham’s birthday, the couple received the call that they were awarded the Gift of Hope IVF grant. 

“I literally just went around the house crying,” she said of the moment they got the grant. “It has definitely been the best birthday present I’ve ever received.”

Sarah Basham’s IVF cycle resulted in 57 fertilized eggs with 23 of them passing genetic testing. When the embryo was transferred to her in December 2023, it split into two — twins.

The Bashams gave birth to two baby girls in June, Audrey and Eloise.