Same-sex female couples start IVF sooner after New York insurance expansion

NEW ORLEANS — Same-sex female couples began IVF about 8 months earlier in the year compared to the previous 3 years, as New York state asked insurers to provide more access early to non-heterosexual patients, one speaker said.

In February 2021, New York State expanded its definition of “infertility” to explicitly include people trying to conceive, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The state ordered insurers to immediately cover infertility treatments for same-sex couples without requiring them to undergo months of fertility testing, Samanthan Estévez, MARYLAND, a researcher in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said during a presentation at the ASRM Scientific Conference and Exhibition.

“Increasing insurance coverage could help increase access to fertility care for same-sex couples,” Estevez told Healio.

In a retrospective cohort study, Estevez and colleagues compared the time from first consultation to IVF or co-IVF, and from first consultation to pregnancy, for same-sex female couples, before and after IVF. expansion of insurance. They reviewed patient records from a private academic fertility center on all same-sex female couples undergoing these procedures from 2018 to 2020 (n = 250) and 2021 to 2022 (n = 35).

The researchers found a median time to IVF for the earlier group of 292 days compared to 173 days for the later group (P. .01). Additionally, a higher percentage of members of the newer group compared to the earlier group started IVF treatment less than a year after the initial consultation (86% vs. 59%; P. = 0.02). After adjusting for age, BMI, and anti-Mullerian hormone levels, couples started IVF 250 days earlier on average after the insurance expansion compared to before (IC at 95%, 103-397; P. .001). The time from initial consultation to pregnancy was not significantly different between the groups, probably because the number of couples in the group after expansion was small, Estevez said.

“LGBTQIA+ couples have a strong desire to start a family. Our finding of increased use of IVF services by same-sex female couples confirms this and demonstrates the need for continued education and awareness of this patient population as they become an even larger part of significant portion of our patient population,” Estevez told Healio. “Despite the challenges LGBTQIA+ people face when it comes to starting a family, equitable access to fertility care can be achieved through a combination of clinical, legal and advocacy efforts. »

Add a subject to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are published on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted to .

” data-action=”subscribe”> Subscribe

We have not been able to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to experience this issue, please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Return to Hélio

American Society for Reproductive Medicine Conference and Scientific Exhibition