The province will spend $50-million a year to expand coverage of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to help about 4,000 would-be parents.
Currently, Ontario funds IVF treatments, which cost up to $10,000 a cycle, only for women with blocked fallopian tubes.
That’s changing starting in December.
Anyone with fertility problems, including ”non-medical factors” such as same-sex couples and single people, will have access to one round of IVF.
One cycle includes egg retrieval and surgical sperm retrieval if necessary.
If several eggs are retrieved and result in multiple embryos, the funding would cover a one-at-a-time transfer of a viable embryo to reduce the chances of higher-risk multiple births.
Patients would have to pay costs beyond the procedure such as fertility drugs and storage if multiple embryos are created.
Women under the age of 43 will be eligible for IVF funding.