The steep price of infertility has prompted wishful couples to drain savings, take out high-interest loans, go overseas for less-expensive care and even move to one of the few states that require some employers to provide coverage. At the same time, many doctors have skirted traditional medical conventions and begun offering everything from creative financing programs to arrangements that resemble infertility insurance.

“You don’t go out. You don’t go on vacations. You live on a very limited budget,” said Kelly Smith, a 28-year-old Missouri woman, who’s had two children with the help of in vitro fertilization.

Physicians describe infertility as an epidemic, growing as more women choose to delay childbirth.

More than 7.3 million Americans, or one in eight women of childbearing age, had trouble getting pregnant or carrying a baby to term in 2002, the most recent data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a jump of nearly 20% over 1995.

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