It is also really important to remember that grants rarely cover the entire bill, and many of the grants providers also require the winners to agree to make appearance in matters concerning public relations and may require some part of your treatment to be photographed or videotaped for research or archive purposes. All in all, if you can stomach all that and willing to jump through whatever obstacles that will hinder your way to fertility, then here are the things you need to know:
- Do some research over the grants you’re about to apply. Not every gran is going to be good and suitable for your situation, and some of them may be scams. If you apply for inappropriate or unsuitable grant, you may waste your money, time, and energy at best, but at worst; you may unknowingly fall for swindlers. There are a lot of pathetic people out there who don’t have qualms about taking advantage of infertile couples, and unpleasant thing happens. So before deciding to apply for any grant available for fertility treatment, you should do your research thoroughly by looking for a lot of information provided by your clinic, bureau, and so on. Even intuition can be a taken to consideration here, if you ever feel that there’s just something off or the whole grants deal just seem so fishy to you, walk away and don’ apply.
- Qualifications. Are you qualified? Some grants may set restrictions to age, marital status, diagnosis-related matters, and residency. Some even disqualify you if you don’t have any kind of insurance coverage in the first place. There are also grants for only specific fertility problems and most of them can only be applied for IVF, meanwhile some others will allow you to use their financial support for other kinds of fertility treatments. Find out whether you fit into the categories or not.
- What will be required of you? There are some clinics that will require you to undergo fertility testing and/or consultations at their clinic before you can apply for grants. The price involved here maybe also higher than normal, and there are still no guarantees that you will win, anyway. Think twice or more, if it’s okay with you then move along. Also, you may also want to look for other requirement that you will have to fulfill after you win the grant, many programs will ask you to participate in public-relation matters and your testimony may be used as an endorsement to clinic or the grant. Some aspects of your treatment may also will be videotaped or photographed, while others may ask you to participate in fundraising. Be sure you are comfortable with everything.
- What will be covered? To prevent any future disappointment, make sure to read closely all the details and agreements provided by the grant application. Also, consider your capability of covering the rest of the expenses if the grants only cover some portions of it (as most grants will do)
- If clinic-specific, consider its reputation. You wouldn't want your treatment to be conducted by incompetent hands now, do you? Only apply if you are sure with the quality and reputation of the clinic.