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“All our savings go to IVF…Then you get that negative pregnancy result. There’s another $6,000 gone.” Grace

Grace is one of the tens of thousands of Australian women who have put their faith in fertility treatments to help conceive a much longed for baby.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m a fraud of a woman. I look like one, but my body just isn’t doing what I want it to do, which is to fall pregnant and have a child.” Grace

At 42, she’s been through six unsuccessful rounds of IVF. The physical, emotional and financial toll is huge.

“One of the hardest things is knowing when to get off the bus, like knowing when to stop, because I think there’s that ‘what if it’s this next time’, one more time?”  Grace

Julia too, had dreams of becoming a mother, undergoing 8 rounds of fertility treatment.

“I had this longing to have a child …I was hopeful that I would be one of the lucky ones.” Julia

And while she willingly put her body in the hands of fertility specialists, she struggled to get a clear answer on just what her chances of having a baby actually were.

“It’s regrettable that I got the more optimistic answer. I would’ve just preferred a more accurate answer.” Julia

This week’s Four Corners looks at the booming business of fertility, where the industry pulls in more than half a billion dollars in revenue, and asks whether clinics are giving women clear, unambiguous advice about their chances of giving birth.

“I think with the commercialisation of IVF that’s occurring, there’s a pressure in every single clinic to use IVF more and IVF brings in more money for a clinic.” Fertility Doctor

– Reported by Sarah Dingle and presented by Sarah Ferguson

Source: The Baby Business – Four Corners