TRICARE, the health care program of the U.S. Please try again later.Īnother highly cited challenge was expensive out-of-pocket costs due to a lack of health insurance coverage. When they ended up having children, they made sure the births were “very close together to be able to have them while we were stationed together.” But the only way they were able to stay together, she added, was for her to transfer to the reserves. One Army veteran said: “We were beginning our third attempt at IVF when I was notified that I was deploying … By the time I returned from deployment, I was 46 and my wife was 43, and we determined that we had lost our last opportunity.”Īnother Reserve service member said she and her partner delayed having children together for a decade while they were both on active duty. If we were able to afford the unlimited tries, we would have a baby together. “We had to pay a loan for three years after.
“We did IVF out of pocket and lost twins,” an active-duty Army spouse wrote. However, meeting that criteria and accessing potential treatment is nearly impossible for many military families, who are often separated for months at a time. The CDC defines “infertility” as the inability to get pregnant after at least one year of unprotected sex. But the most common obstacle to growing their families was “military commitments” and an “unstable military lifestyle.” Long deployments, especially during wartime, took their toll and left fewer chances for couples to try conceiving. Many respondents described inadequate medical coverage for fertility-related treatments, financial difficulties or undue stress on relationships. And it’s so valuable in getting information out to the public, letting the civilian world into these nuances.” “I think this report will be really reaffirming for them and validating what they’ve experienced throughout their military service. “We in the military community have a mindset of facing challenges and rising to the occasion,” said Whalen, who grew up in a military family, constantly being uprooted. Meagan Whalen, the deputy communications director of With Honor, a nonprofit organization led by veterans that focuses on electing veterans into public service, said the military community tends to remain silent on these kinds of personal challenges.
“Obligations of motherhood and military service commitment limit how many children I felt like I could have.” “Pregnancy and postpartum recovery time affects a woman’s chances of promotion,” an active-duty Air Force service member wrote anonymously in her response. Active-duty service members are generally 17 to 40 years old, about the same range as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) definition of “women of childbearing age.” Some voiced concerns about the impact pregnancy might have on their careers. The answers revealed widespread struggles: Women and LGBTQ+ service members were nearly twice as likely to mention family-building challenges, including tracking ovulation, taking hormone-based medication, trying in vitro fertilization or navigating adoption processes while continually moving across state lines. The final survey results include more than 8,000 members of the military community. What’s left undone 45 years after the National Women’s Conference The only all-Black women’s unit sent to Europe during WWII is awarded a Congressional medal ‘You leave everything behind’: As bases end housing, Afghan women detail life as refugees in the United States