A Message from our Advocacy Day Presenting Sponsor

Why Legacy’s committed to supporting RESOLVE

Khaled Kteily is the founder and CEO of Legacy, a digital fertility service that allows people to test, freeze, and improve their sperm from the comfort of home.

Earlier this year, I — along with the team at Legacy — made a pretty big decision. We donated $100,000 to RESOLVE.

It was a big decision, but it was also an easy one. Because Legacy and RESOLVE share a common goal to make fertility care accessible, affordable, and normalized. We want to help people get the care they need, when they need it, and eliminate the stigma around infertility and fertility preservation, so people can build the families they want whenever they’re ready.

Here’s a few important facts that drive our mission:

The male partner is notoriously overlooked when it comes to fertility care. In a recent article in Fertility & Sterility, Dr. Michael Eisenberg estimated that, in approximately 20–25% of infertility cases, the male partner’s evaluation is skipped altogether. But we also know that male fertility is involved in about half of all infertility cases.

It’s ironic, because the male fertility evaluation (primarily a semen analysis) is simpler, less expensive, and less invasive than female fertility testing. And in many cases, male subfertility can be addressed or even reversed via lifestyle changes, like quitting smoking.

So why are we ignoring the male partner? Legacy wants to change the outdated view that infertility is a “women’s issue,” and to use education to get men to be more proactive about testing, understanding, improving, and preserving their fertility. RESOLVE provides key resources on these topics.

Most of the country lives in fertility clinic “deserts,” and care can be expensive and inaccessible. A study published in 2017 found that access to fertility speciality care was “limited or absent” for 40% of the US population. And when there is a nearby clinic, many people can’t afford it. IVF is notoriously expensive, and as of 2018, only 24% of employers offered infertility benefits.

Legacy hopes to democratize fertility care. Mail-in kits mean that anyone with access to UPS or FedEx can get access to critical fertility testing. And, we applaud RESOLVE’s efforts to improve fertility coverage — state by state, RESOLVE is making it possible for more people to get the care they need.

Fertility testing and preservation should be inclusive. Cisgender, heterosexual couples are not the only people who need, or deserve, fertility care. LGBTQ+ couples need testing and freezing for donor sperm, help with surrogacy, and affordable fertility preservation before gender affirmation treatment.

We’re striving to meet the needs of every person on a path to parenthood. And we so admire RESOLVE’s advocacy for equality in medical care and coverage, as well as the important role they’ve played in new surrogacy legislation nationwide.

We all need to erase the shame around infertility. This issue is too common, and too important, for people to stay silent. We stand with RESOLVE as they shine a light on personal stories of infertility and push people to talk to their doctors and get educated.

This is why we’re proud to support RESOLVE, and why we’ve partnered with them for Advocacy Day and beyond.

Let’s get our voices heard, and change the fertility conversation.