Heartbreak: Women caught in web of red tape as funding runs out for B.C.’s publicly funded IVF program
The problem for prospective parents with B.C.’s program is a lack of clarity on eligibility. Some patients who had their initial appointment at a fertility clinic before the March 2024 announcement were told the appointments weren’t valid
By Alec Lazenby
Last updated 12 hours ago
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When Mya Wollf and her husband heard that B.C. was moving forward with a provincially funded program for in vitro fertilization, they were ecstatic.
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After having tried for a baby for five years and several rounds of fertility treatments, the Coquitlam couple wasn’t told that eligibility dated to the program’s announcement in March 2024. By the time they got a consultation in June 2025, a month before the program launched, the waiting list had already increased.
“Even though we had been at the clinic for many years, we were not on that list in the beginning,” said Wollf. “By the time we even got to see our doctor, the funding had run out.”
She said she has now entered menopause, so she won’t be eligible for IVF, and the program doesn’t cover the $30,000 an egg donation cycle would cost.
Wollf is one of two women who spoke about the challenges they’ve faced with the province’s publicly funded IVF program following the news last week that funding has run out and more money won’t be released until the spring.
Health Minister Josie Osborne and Premier David Eby promised the program would be able to cover up to $19,000 for one round of IVF treatment to anyone who wants it. However, the limited nature of the program — which is two years — and the maximum budget of $68 million did not keep pace with demand.
Most provinces have some coverage for IVF. Ontario has had a permanent program since 2015 and recently topped its funding to $250 million.
Quebec became the first province to offer a program in 2010, although it terminated it five years later due to massive cost overruns.
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The problem for prospective parents with B.C.’s program is a lack of clarity on eligibility. Some patients who had their initial appointment at a fertility clinic before the March 2024 announcement were told the appointments weren’t valid.
It happened to Richmond resident Nina Zasitko, who, like Wollf, is a patient at Olive Fertility, one of three clinics involved in B.C.’s IVF program.
Zasitko said she had started receiving treatment at the clinic in 2023 after defeating thyroid cancer and undergoing several years of tests and surgeries. After two failed insemination treatments, she got pregnant with twins on the third try in July 2024. However she lost both at 18 weeks despite flying to Toronto for emergency surgery.
She said she was devastated. After finding a funeral home to cremate her babies and bring them home to B.C., she started looking into an IVF program.
It would take another year for the program to be operational and by that point Zasitko was running out of time because she will turn 42 and age out of eligibility on Jan. 12, 2026.
She was also told her appointments in and around March 2024 were invalid because her initial consult happened in February and she was only added to the wait-list in January 2025. So far, the clinic has only treated patients who were added up to December 2024.
“All my doctor said to me was that they ran out of money, and by the time they get to my application, I will have aged out of the system.”
She said she is “heartbroken” that she has potentially lost the chance to be a mother.
Osborne was not made available for an interview Tuesday and her ministry did not respond to questions why the program doesn’t cover egg-donation cycles and whether there will be any exceptions made for women who age out while on a wait-list.
Dr. Niamh Tallon, an associate physician at Olive Fertility Centre, said most of the negative stories she hears about the program relate to the fact the province wasn’t clear and upfront about eligibility requirements and that the March 2024 announcement would be the starting date for eligibility, not the July 2025 launch date.
“If anyone is sitting on a list or waiting to see if there’s funding coming their way, well, we’re going to be waiting until next year,” she said.
“So if they have a birthday between now and when that funding becomes available, they’re going to have aged out.”
Wollf said that because of a car accident several years ago, fertility treatments are the only way her and her husband are going to be able to have a baby.
Now, because she missed the boat for IVF, she is having to travel to a clinic in New York to get an egg donation cycle.
“We started at Olive in 2021 I believe, and we did everything we could afford … but we couldn’t afford the IVF because it’s so expensive in Canada. We’re not homeowners. I know a lot of folks will take out second mortgages to be able to pay for the IVF, but that wasn’t an option for us.”
