More Canadians opting for fertility treatment during pandemic, advocacy group says

More women have undergone fertility treatment during the pandemic, especially if they've been working from home and haven't had to disclose their health challenges to an employer, says the head of a national advocacy group.

Carolynn Dubé, executive director of Fertility Matters Canada, said clinics across the country have seen a rise in the number of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, procedures in which eggs are fertilized with sperm in a lab before one or more embryos are transferred into the uterus.

The pandemic has also seen a jump in other assisted reproductive procedures like people having their eggs or sperm frozen to have children in the future.

Commuting to an office before or after time-consuming blood work and ultrasounds is stressful enough, but revealing that personal information to an employer adds more pressure for women concerned about moving up within an organization or getting a promotion, Dubé said from Moncton, N.B.

"The pandemic work-from-home life has certainly allowed people to skip that piece of the puzzle, and not have to be so open about a lot of early-morning treatment," said Dubé, who underwent two cycles of IVF and had embryos transferred five times, making her a mom to three sons — an eight-year-old and twins who are three.