For IVF patients, especially women in their 40s, every day counts. As Zoya Teirstein and Jessica Kutz report in this story, more than half of fertility clinics in 13 states—including Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware—are at risk of hurricane damage. In this collaboration between Grist, Vox, and The 19th, Teirstein and Kutz follow Kirsti Mahon, a woman in Naples, Florida, undergoing IVF, and recount how Hurricane Ian nearly shattered Mahon’s dreams of having a baby. The piece is part of a larger series that focuses on how climate change impacts reproductive health.
On Wednesday morning, Justin injected Kirsti with the last dose of her medication. Southwest Florida was flooding, and parts of the state were losing power, but they hadn’t heard anything from the clinic. Their appointment was supposed to be the next day. As far as Kirsti knew, the procedure was still on track.
Ulrich said she’d love to see clinics establish better relationships with other fertility treatment centers in their region so that patients could transfer to them in times of disaster. She also encourages clinic staff to review their emergency action plans to ensure they are prepared to meet the changing nature of storms, and to be ready to make decisions quickly to salvage cycles and protect embryos. All clinics store embryos in nitrogen tanks, which do not rely on electricity and are typically safe from blackouts or issues with electrical grids. But the labs that embryos mature in before they are frozen do depend on electricity — and if a disaster takes out power for too long, even backup generators can run out of fuel. During Hurricane Katrina, embryos were lost at one clinic for this reason.
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