Ken Mosesian

How do we more effectively reach people with information about fertility and infertility? That's the question that we address at every weekly staff meeting. Giant patient conferences are costly and seem to be waning in popularity. Early education campaigns still attempt to get people to come to some form of the aforementioned conference. There is a lack of male participation in the conversation. Youth and young adults seem to be left out of the equation. 

Then October happened.

The email was so eloquently written I had to triple check the age of the sender. Yup. 17 years old. John Taylor came to us asking if we could help him get the message out about the costs of A.R.T., and IVF in particular. He also wanted to spread the word about the lack of insurance coverage available to help people who are struggling with infertility and find themselves unable to pay for treatment. Ultimately, John wants to normalize the conversation around fertility issues, speaking from his very personal experience. You see, John was born as a result of IVF, and realized that he literally would not be here if his parents did not have the financial resources to pay for treatment. John has now teamed up with The AFA as our Youth Advocate. Check out John's blog every Monday on www.theafa.org, and look for much more from John in 2009.

Next up is our innovative, leading edge, early education program - Manicures & Martinis. This program is part of our strategy to take educational experiences to where they can have the most impact. First, the program is designed to reach young women in their 20's and early 30's who are not yet trying to have a family, but who one day may want to. In the informal focus group testing that we've done, many women have shared that they don't feel comfortable talking to their doctors about issues around fertility preservation. And many also indicated that a more informal, "girls night out" setting would be an ideal venue to learn about such things. So we're creating an opportunity for women to get together with a few of their girlfriends, enjoy a complimentary manicure and a martini (or non-alcoholic beverage) and hear a dynamic speaker explain what steps they can take now to stack the odds in their favor of being able to conceive later. For more information: Corey@TheAFA.org. 

Finally, we're going to be holding a series of "Lunch and Learn" sessions during 2009, created especially for women and men already on their family building journey. Lunch & Learn sessions will last 90 minutes, include a tasty meal, and feature a leading health care professional talking about important issues such as third party reproduction and adoption for cancer patients, the pro-active patient, coming to grips with azoospermia, immunology and its affect on IVF and adopting through the foster care system and special needs kids.

The bottom line is that we're committed to finding the most effective and efficient ways to reach people. And we're committed to enhancing what works, and admitting when something doesn't - and creating something new to replace it. Enjoy this month's Connections.

All My Best,

Ken Mosesian
The AFA Acting Executive Director