More families in Windsor will have access to funding to grow or start a family.
The Ontario government has announced an over $1.5-million investment in Victory Reproductive Care in Windsor.
This funding will support approximately 163 rounds of publicly in vitro fertilization cycles - also known as IVF - reduces wait times for individuals and couples locally.
This funding is in addition to the $1.5-million the facility received annually from the provincial government which started in Sept. 2022. That funding covered one IVF cycle per eligible patient per lifetime, benefiting approximately 135 local families annually.
While these two funding investments are through different streams, it allows IVF patients further access to care closer to home.
Dr. Rahi Victory, OBGYN, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Specialist, calls it an incredible investment.
"We're going to be able to help a lot of families to achieve that dream of expanding their families or starting their families. Fertility is a growing concern, right now we know that about one out of every six couples is infertile. So this is a huge dilemma in the population, and so now this is really going to help us to solve that problem."
He says this funding will bring wait times down to a maximum of six months.
"It will really make a big difference. Prior to that, patients were waiting years because they had to get access not in Windsor, but actually having to go to London, or Toronto, or further. Now with this funding they can get it right here in Windsor, and we are serving a very large catchment area, so it's a real blessing to have this access for our patients."
Dr. Victory says having this access has been a great resource for patients.
"We've gone even one step further in doing additional cycles at a discounted rate for those patients, for those that need more than one try, we also offer opportunities for them as well. So we're really trying to work together with the government program to make this expand so that even those who require more than what's available still get access in a meaningful way."
Without funding, IVF treatment can cost between $16,000 and $20,000.
This funding is available to patients between the age of 18 and 43.
Victory Reproductive Care provides around 500 IVF treatments annually, with now approximately 300 of them being funded through provincial grants.
This money is part of a $250-million expansion of the Ontario Fertility Program which will enhance services at 25 clinics, including six new IVF sites.