Infertility Warrior

Meet the woman who has relentlessly campaigned for seven years to change the infertility cover open medical aid schemes are obliged to provide. Saskia Williams, we salute you!

- Margot Bertelsmann

YOU CAMPAIGN FOR MEDICAL SCHEMES TO PAY FOR INFERTILITY TREATMENT. CAN YOU GIVE US THE BACKGROUND?

Medical aid schemes have to fund treatment for a list of 270 prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs). Infertility is on that list. But according to a decision by the Council for Medical Schemes (the CMS), it is the only condition that is excluded from having to be treated under the PMBs. This means your medical aid scheme has to fund the costs associated with the diagnosis of infertility, but they do not have to fund its treatment.

YOU OBJECT TO THIS

Yes. The World Health Organization classifies infertility as an illness. One in six couples suffer from it worldwide. It is among the four most prevalent illnesses in people of childbearing age in the world. It is a real issue for hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa.

BEFORE WE TALK ABOUT PRIVATE HEALTHCARE, IS INFERTILITY TREATMENT COVERED UNDER STATE HEALTHCARE?

There are infertility treatment facilities in three state hospitals nationwide: Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, and Tygerberg and Groote Schuur hospitals in Cape Town. That’s it. If you live elsewhere, you can’t access these services. And because of demand, waiting lists are long. One thing couples with infertility do not have is time, because a woman’s fertility declines sharply from her mid-thirties.

IT’S ALSO AN EXPENSIVE ENDEAVOUR…

Yes. One IVF cycle can cost you between R30 000 and R100 000 for one cycle, depending on where you go, what exactly your condition is, how old you are, what interventions are needed, and so on.

OKAY, SO THAT’S THE BAD NEWS OUT OF THE WAY. TELL US ABOUT IFAASA?