HEY,
BENEFITS
MANAGER

Attract and retain
top employees.

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Welcome

About you

You’re in charge of selecting and managing employee benefits. This task is becoming more critical and challenging every day because:
  • You need to figure out how to help your company differentiate itself in the marketplace by offering an ultra-competitive, incredibly-progressive, and of course — enter your CEO — fiscally-responsible total rewards and benefits program.
  • The competition for ANY talent — nevermind TOP talent — is fierce in today’s job market with the number of job openings still outnumbers the number of job seekers by more than 1.3 million!
  • Job seekers today are only passively considering a change, meaning it’s going to take a sweet deal to get them to leave the comfort of their current position behind and take a risk on your company.
  • Designing a robust benefits program that attracts all demographics is tough. You have to use all your ingenuity to come up with a plan that appeals to your multi-generational workforce.
Your company isn’t looking to increase salaries, so where are the recruiters turning?

Right now, all eyes are on you, Benefits Manager! Now is your time to shine!

Now is your opportunity to showcase the true power that a strategic, thoughtful, and valuable benefits program can have on your organization’s ability to attract and retain top talent.

With your creativity, and even in these less than ideal market conditions, you can:
  • Attract and retain the best talent
  • Improve diversity and inclusion
  • Portray a family- and female-friendly employer brand
  • Increase overall employee satisfaction
  • Support employees' financial, mental, and physical well-being
  • Reduce high-risk pregnancies and their associated costs

How are you going to accomplish all of this?

By adding progressive perks and benefits in line with some of the most sought-after employers — think Facebook, Apple, and Starbucks.

Do you want to see YOUR benefits program compared to Facebook, Apple, and Starbucks?

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Why Fertility Benefits?

The facts

1 in 8 -- both women and men -- experience infertility

Just 16 states

mandate IVF insurance coverage, but there are exceptions,
including small businesses or large corporations
that self-insure

59%

of women would opt for a company
offering fertility benefits over a company that didn’t

Patient Attitudes Toward Their Employer When 100% Covered

"More grateful"
73%
"More loyal"
61%
"Stayed longer"
53%

Source: FertilityIQ, 2019

55%

of women would prefer an employer who
provided coverage for annual fertility
testing

Why This Matters for You

About you

Currently, of the 1 in 8 employees battling infertility, only 29 percent feel supported by their employer overall, and 38 percent feel supported by their direct supervisor. Luckily, the situation is a little improved with co-workers, by whom 44 percent feel supported.

In other words, that hopeful Mom and Dad you have at your company — the two in green above that are suffering in silence — probably feel isolated and unsupported while working for you.

The result of these individuals not feeling supported is three-fold:

1. They leave: 30 percent have quit a job in the past in part because they did not feel supported with regard to their infertility.

2. They are actively looking for — or are open to — new job opportunities: 27 percent are looking or open because of the company overall, 29 percent because of their direct supervisor, and 20 percent of co-workers.

3. They stay, even though they are unhappy: 32 percent stay to take advantage of infertility insurance benefits.

The answer to this problem is to be one of the ever-increasing number of companies to offer — or expand your — fertility benefits. Some companies — again, like Facebook, Apple, and Starbucks — are announcing them publicly, but the list pulled together by FertilityIQ grows every year.

Would you like to tell your CEO that you offer benefits comparable to Facebook?

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What Are Fertility Benefits?

what's popular

Here are some of the most common fertility benefits. If you haven’t done so already, check with your insurance broker to see what your plan covers. You might be surprised at what you find out.

Common Fertility Benefits

IVF treatments
23%
Fertility medication
18%
Genetic testing
15%
Non-IVF fertility treatments
13%
Visits with counselors
9%
Egg harvesting or freezing
7%

Source: International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans, 2019

If your medical insurance covers all (or some) of these benefits, congratulations! You are in a small class of caring, employee-focused employers.

However, you could further enhance your family-friendly benefits by thinking outside the insurance box and being an innovator in the benefits arena.

One ultra-competitive, incredibly-progressive, and fiscally-responsible option is infertility coaching.

This is where I come in.
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Hello

About me

Once my husband and I developed our careers enough to feel financially solvent, we decided it was time to start building our family. Unfortunately, my journey to motherhood was long and traumatic.

In five years, I endured seven in vitro fertilization transfers (three fresh, four frozen), four miscarriages, and stillborn twins before finally giving birth to our daughter Aurora prematurely in January 2016.

Inspired by my own painful experience with infertility and pregnancy loss, I launched a twice weekly podcast called Beat Infertility in June 2015. The show features both infertility warriors and fertility experts to empower listeners to educate themselves and become their own self-advocates.

I now help people who dream of becoming parents to navigate the complicated world of fertility treatments and other paths to parenthood.

In other words, I help people — just like your employees — beat infertility.

Let's talk

How

POSSIBLE STRUCTURES

As someone who spent tens of thousands of dollars on fertility treatments, I know that any additional expense is not taken lightly.

However, I also know that if I had someone to guide me through the process and help me research and make evidence-based and scientifically-backed decisions along the way, my journey would have been much shorter and less traumatic — ultimately saving me money and time.

Do you know who else would have saved time and money? My employer. Here’s how:

  • Faster fertility success means fewer rounds of IVF. With an average cost of $22,000 per treatment, and nearly half of parents requiring more than one treatment, this is an expensive cost to hit your insurance pool if you are one of the great employers who include fertility treatments in your insurance program. If IVF doesn't work for your employees and they decide to pursue surrogacy or adoption, you’re potentially talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Faster fertility success can reduce the chance of multiples. Because fertility treatments are so cost-prohibitive for the parents who DON’T receive insurance coverage, they often elect to transfer multiple embryos at once, significantly increasing their chance for multiples. A multiple pregnancy is always a high-risk pregnancy. There will be more doctor visits, more labs, more tests, more monitoring. In other words, MORE MONEY charged against YOUR insurance pool.
  • Faster fertility success can reduce premature births. Moms carrying multiples are more likely to deliver prematurely. This leads to longer NICU stays, longer maternity leaves, more doctors visits, more labs, more tests, more monitoring. In other words, MORE MONEY charged against YOUR insurance pool.
  • Faster fertility success increases employee engagement and productivity. I hate to break it to you Benefits Manager, but that infertile Mom- and Dad-to-be who feel unsupported by you are incredibly distracted and unproductive. Period. There’s just no way around it. Infertility has become their identity. They are obsessively looking at Dr. Google in secret while on company time. They are stressed to the max, and your former high-potential talent is probably underperforming now. We both know the very real costs of unproductive and disengaged employees.

It would be an honor and privilege to support your employees on your behalf!

This could be done in a number of ways:
  • No cost to your company: Simply refer employees to my services and pricing page in a company-wide announcement for current employees and as part of the onboarding process for new hires. If your employees sign up with me through your referral, they will have access to exclusive programs at a reduced rate. When you think about it, this is a no-lose situation for you. There is only upside for you when for ZERO added cost, you could be the reason why your employees beat infertility.
  • Shared cost between your company and employees: Your company and employees would split the cost in a way you determine. Examples: Your company pays the first month of services only, or up to a certain dollar amount (either lifetime or each month). Employees would be responsible for the difference.
  • No cost to employees: Your company covers the full cost of infertility coaching for as long as the employee needs it. To put some real numbers here, you could cover 9 months of coaching for 9 employees for LESS than the cost of 1 round of IVF.
With scarcely any administration required from you, apart from communicating this benefit to your employees — which I can help you with — and paying your invoice just like you do any other vendor, you could change the lives of your employees by helping them become parents faster.
Let's talk

My Coaching Methodology

Help your employees become parents. Faster.

Beating infertility is possible. How? By empowering your employees to take control of their care and treatment plan. Your employees can throw endless dollars at infertility, but without making the right decisions, they are still going to fail.

I help your employees advocate for themselves and make evidence-based and scientifically-backed decisions, which lead to faster fertility success. This, as opposed to blindly trusting the decisions that are often dictated to them by the for-profit businesses — ahem, the fertility clinic and insurance companies — that financially benefit from their infertility.

Do you want to help your employees become parents faster? Then you need to arm them with:

EDUCATION

WHY & HOW

EDUCATION

Fertility treatments meant that you had to become a nurse overnight, with zero training and no education. Get answers to questions you didn’t even know needed to be asked to help make scientifically-based, well-informed decisions about your next steps.

Includes but is not limited to:

  • Determining if your current clinic and/or doctor is best for your unique situation -- and suggesting alternatives if not
  • Virtually/remotely attending your consults and appointments as your advocate
  • Debriefing after all consults and appointments to ensure all information and options were understood
  • Brainstorming questions to ask during appointments
  • Suggesting additional questions to ask following appointments
  • Assessing current diagnoses, such as a thyroid condition, that may need further management
  • Reviewing current medications and supplements and suggesting any additions or changes to discuss with your doctor
  • Researching current literature to develop a complete list of your options at every step
  • Setting fertility-related goals, such as improving egg quality, and developing a plan to achieve those goals
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HOPE

WHY & HOW

HOPE

Heather's coaching has taken me from being afraid not only that I couldn't achieve another pregnancy, but that if I did my body would not be able to safely carry it; to restoring my belief that both of those things are possible and will happen for me. She comes with such deep knowledge of the infertility journey, and she makes you feel understood and supported.

R. from Virginia

Wishing is the belief that your goal — building your family — will simply manifest into reality. Hope, on the other hand, is the belief that the future will be better than the present and you have the power to make it so. Together, I’ll help you build a hopeful mindset so you can seize your future, rather than have it dictated to you.

Includes but is not limited to:

  • Developing a unique approach that works for you, with the goal of opening your mind — over time — to the possibility that you will become a parent
  • Validating your thoughts and emotions while pointing out unhealthy or unproductive ones
  • Brainstorming action plans — and backup plans in the event of obstacles along your journey
  • Identifying opportunities to take action that you may have missed but might impact future outcomes
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RESILIENCY

WHY & HOW

RESILIENCY

Working with Heather has facilitated breakthroughs in my cultivating a healthier mental space, as well as in brainstorming ideas to present to my doctor. Heather helped me realize that it's important to serve and participate in all of the other aspects of my life that make me who I am, which has made me feel lighter, stronger, and more able to continue in my treatment.

L. from Arizona

You cannot beat infertility if you let every bump derail you. Develop the ability to accept the challenges of your situation, process and recover from pain more effectively, eliminate resistance to prolonged suffering, and find healthy ways to adapt and move forward.

Includes but is not limited to:

  • Developing ways to face and tackle the challenges of your unique diagnosis and prognosis
  • Setting realistic goals and working toward them
  • Shifting your mindset from problems being insurmountable
  • Developing confidence in your ability to solve problems and trust your instincts
  • Identifying ways to live your life outside of infertility
  • Learning self-love, self-compassion, and self-forgiveness
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ADVOCACY

WHY & HOW

SELF-ADVOCACY

I believe that working with Heather earlier could have cut a year or two off my journey. She backed up my intuition about what my last hurdle was, suggested a specific medication for it, and I am now 14 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby girl. While that won't be the outcome for everyone, Heather is the real deal -- none of this "just think positive" BS!

K. from Illinois

Your infertility journey will change the second you understand that YOU know your body best and YOU are your most powerful advocate. Self-advocacy is voicing what you need — not confrontation. Most infertility warriors are not natural self-advocates and thus need help developing this skill.

Includes but is not limited to:

  • Helping you realize you have a voice — and how to use it politely but effectively
  • Learning my five-step approach to self-advocacy
  • Identifying opportunities to speak up that you may have missed but might impact future outcomes
  • Brainstorming questions to ask your doctor following appointments — and in general throughout your journey
  • Drafting and editing emails and other written communication with doctors
  • Writing example scripts you can use for the specific situation while you're still learning to self-advocate
let's talk

PARTNERSHIP

WHY & HOW

PARTNERSHIP

Her summative experience sets her apart from other infertility mentors. In working with Heather, you will have not only have a constant member of your infertility team who will provide emotional support and is in your corner through thick and thin, but who also helps you process information and empowers you to make changes that can improve outcomes.

S. from Michigan

You are not alone on this journey. But you need a fellow infertility warrior to support and guide you, pick up the pieces when your world is falling apart, and celebrate even your smallest wins.

Includes guidance and support in the following areas, based on personal experience and research:

  • All paths to parenthood — trying to conceive on your own, fertility treatments, donor gametes, adoption, gestational surrogacy, and living childfree
  • Interpersonal relationships
  • Workplace issues
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WELLNESS

WHY & HOW

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Although it can be an uncomfortable topic for some, your overall health and lifestyle matters on this journey. Optimize it to be fertility-boosting rather than fertility-hindering.

Includes guidance, accountability, and meal plans for the following lifestyles:

  • Ketogenic and intermittent fasting
  • Paleo
  • Whole30
  • Mediterranean

Additionally, includes workout and stress management plans and accountability.

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Testimonials

WHAT MY CLIENTS SAY

I started to work with Heather at the lowest point in my fertility journey, just after a fifth IVF cycle, ERA, and subsequent third failed PGD tested embryo transfer. Needless to say, the possibility of a biological child felt as if it were slipping away.

As a physician myself, I turned to Heather at first, not so much for help with medical decision-making, but because I was broken and looking for an impartial friend who could empathize with the emotional suffering I was experiencing.

Over the next year, Heather became an integral part of my ‘treatment team.’ During weekly brainstorming conversations with Heather, I began to realize that I had previously been completely deferential to my RE clinic doctors and nurses; often putting anxieties and questions aside as I knew that their expertise was far from my own scope of practice.

Week by week, for months, Heather provided me with small steps which stretched the limits of my comfort zone. I began advocating for my needs as a patient and even changed to a different physician within my RE clinic who was more responsive to my concerns. At the same time, Heather provided me with the female support and connection I had initially sought.

Ultimately, based on Heather’s encouragement, I sought a third opinion and became a patient at an RE clinic half way across the country. Talk about stretching my comfort zone! A cross-country journey was big step that I would have never imagined when I began this journey 4 years ago.

At my new RE clinic, I was able to work with a physician who re-instilled confidence in the IVF process for my husband and I. Our physician set statistics aside and tailored a treatment plan to my body. Our journey is not over but I am much closer to bringing home our miracle baby. Currently, Heather and I are working on new anxieties of early pregnancy after infertility.

Although Heather is not a reproductive endocrinologist, her summative experience sets her apart from other infertility mentors. Maybe, like myself, you feel you are just in need of a friend who has been where you are. However, in working with Heather you will have not only have a constant member of your infertility team who will provide emotional support and is in your corner through thick and thin, but who also helps you process information on a consistent basis and empowers you to make changes that can improve outcomes.

Best of luck to all of the infertility warriors.

S. from Michiganmonthly member

I've been a patient at four IVF clinics in two states for 4.5 years, but Heather is literally the only person (doctors included) who has ever carefully read my medical records. She was immediately able to spot improvements that could have been made to my protocols. After 4 egg retrievals and 6 transfers that hadn't resulted in a baby, she told me that based on my results to date, IVF could still work for me -- and I was not crazy to keep putting energy and money into having my own genetic child.

Unlike a therapist, Heather will actually tell you what to do next and what to ask your doctors in order to make progress. I moved while working with her and appreciated that all the support was over the phone, so it didn't have to be interrupted. She was responsive when I needed something different (emotional work rather than strategizing or vice versa).

My new home doesn't have an IVF clinic, and Heather walked me through becoming a patient at a clinic 10 hours away, which I couldn't really wrap my mind around at the time. I was ultimately successful there.

I believe that working with Heather earlier could have cut a year or two off my journey. She backed up my intuition about what my last hurdle was, suggested a specific medication for it, and I am now 14 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby girl. While that won't be the outcome for everyone, Heather is the real deal -- none of this "just think positive" BS -- and I recommend her regularly!

K. from Illinoismonthly member

It’s hard to put the value of Heather’s help into words. To say she is a wealth of knowledge is an understatement. The infertility journey can get overwhelming very quickly. Heather takes all the stress from you and takes it on herself.

I needed to switch clinics to one that specializes in recurrent pregnancy loss. Heather researched clinics in my city and called the clinics and asked questions to see which would be best suited for my individual needs. She will provide you with questions to ask, ways to advocate for yourself, and even sit in on consultations.

I have secondary infertility and felt as though I was letting infertility consume my life by obsessing over it, rather than putting time and energy into my son. Heather was invaluable in that she allowed me to not think obsessively about infertility. Being able to mentally disconnect from infertility is something for which I will forever be thankful.

If you’re feeling like you’re mentally exhausted by infertility, have unanswered questions, or wondering if you’re on the right protocol for your specific needs, then Heather will be as great of an asset for you as she was for me.

M. from Texasmonthly member

Before Heather began working with me as a coach, it seemed no one understood what I was going through with infertility and pregnancy loss. I felt isolated, sad and stuck, but making the decision to work with Heather changed that.

She comes with such deep knowledge of the infertility journey, and she makes you feel understood and supported in a way that your spouse, friends, family and doctors cannot. She works so hard to take an action-oriented approach to achieving your fertility goals that match your needs, no matter your fertility challenges.

Heather's coaching has taken me from being afraid not only that I couldn't achieve another pregnancy, but that if I did my body would not be able to safely carry it; to restoring my belief that both of those things are possible and will happen for me.

She is meticulous about understanding your medical background and connects you with the right experts, doctors and resources you need to find success on your infertility journey.

R. from Virginiamonthly member

Partnering with Heather was a crucial step in our infertility journey.

Before Heather, we worked with a fertility center that did not have our best interests in mind. The doctor did not customize my protocol, and all three frozen embryo transfers failed. The doctor did not plan to change the protocol, and I felt frustrated with his approach.

Heather convinced us to change clinics. RMA of NJ provided a personalized protocol and took the time to understand my needs as a patient. Heather also recommended supplements, dietary and lifestyle changes that improved my results. She also provided amazing emotional support on our weekly calls.

My retrieval resulted in 7 normal blastocysts, and I am currently 14 weeks pregnant on the first try (knock wood). I am incredibly grateful for Heather's advice, support, and compassion. Working with her was integral to our success.

K. from New Yorkmonthly member

Working with Heather has facilitated breakthroughs in my cultivating a healthier mental space, as well as in brainstorming ideas to present to my doctor. In my previous cycles, I had employed the "grit-your-teeth-and-bear-it" method, with the hopes that it'd be "the end" (i.e., being pregnant) very soon. However, through weekly calls and daily check-ins, Heather helped me realize that it's important to serve and participate in all of the other aspects of my life that make me who I am, which has made me feel lighter, stronger, and more able to continue in my treatment.

Furthermore, even though Heather is not a doctor, her vast experience in the infertility world has rendered her invaluable in coming up with ideas to present to my doctor. Since my infertility is largely unexplained, our discussions have provided insight that has directly manifested to changes my doctor has made in my protocol.

Finally, Heather has provided unmatched support for a path that I've found to be, at its essence, lonely. A lot of people in my life don't want to or don't know how to talk about infertility; as a result, I have often felt isolated, which only exacerbates the grief I feel after failed treatment cycles. Heather, in contrast, has been an unwavering support whose empathy is so fully engulfing and genuine that I always leave our conversations feeling energized.

All in all, I would very much recommend working with Heather, for whatever stage you may happen to be in your infertility journey. She's helped, and continues to help, me get through this very difficult time.

L. from Arizonamonthly member

When my third IVF cycle failed I knew I had to make some changes, I just didn't know what they should be. I knew I had to change clinics, but the thought of moving away from the comfortable and starting over was scary and overwhelming. I started doing my own research and got bogged down in conflicting medical opinions. I was feeling lost and confused when I decided to do a deep dive session with Heather.

She thoroughly reviewed my medical records, had detailed notes and suggestions and walked me through various scenarios. She even researched the best clinics and individual physicians at each clinic most suited for my diagnoses and individual circumstances. I received more information, guidance and support in that two-hour session than I have received from a single provider in over six years.

I left the session with a detailed, step by step plan. Heather provided me all of her notes with embedded links for convenience. I feel more confident and hopeful than I have in years and able to finally advocate for myself in this process, something I was not previously able to do. I truly feel the deep dive session was the turning point in my journey. Heather is emphatic, funny and so knowledgeable about all things fertility. I am so grateful to have found her.

S. from Californiaone-time intensive

I did a Deep Dive session with Heather. This was the right thing for me at this point in my course – a year into a diagnosis of POI and in between plans and clinics. I’ve been with two clinics and had multiple consults. Despite that, I haven’t always felt that my team was giving me all the information I needed or making the best decisions for me.

When I started this whole infertility course, I had no idea what I didn’t know, which makes it difficult to ask the right questions. In meeting with Heather, I was looking for an outsider view on my care and situation. The two-hour session was an opportunity to reflect on my progress so far with 6 IUIs under my belt, one of which was a converted IVF cycle. What has gone well? What could use improvement? What questions might I want to bring up as I establish care in a new clinic?

It was also validating to have an outsider’s perspective on some concerns I’ve had about various plans and providers. It’s difficult to know what is “normal” and not when you’re in the middle of such an emotionally exhausting experience! I’ve learned a lot in the past year and I really appreciated working with Heather to help fill in some of the holes!

H. from Tennesseeone-time intensive
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