Sep 22nd 2021

How Fertility Apps Support Growing Families

The use of fertility services is clearly increasing. One in 10 women say they or their partners have received medical help to become pregnant. Now fertility support has gone digital.

Hopeful parents—including men and women struggling with infertility, LGBTQ individuals, and singles who desire biological children—are more and more using fertility apps. This choice comes most naturally to millennials, who have grown up with mobile devices and decide to seek help through family planning apps as they currently make up the largest proportion of those at child-rearing age.

Broader Access to Fertility Support

Hopeful parents are turning to fertility apps as fertility services have become more accessible through employee benefits. For example, 24% of employers covered fertility medications in 2020, versus 14% in 2018 and just 8% in 2016; 24% covered in vitro fertilization treatments, compared with 17% in 2018 and 13% in 2016.

Employees have taken advantage of the expanded fertility support. After a brief pause at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when medical offices were closed, fertility claims rose by 42% after most fertility treatments were able to resume—reaching pre-pandemic levels within 6 weeks.

When viewed together with a 3% rise in fertility prescriptions, the increase in benefit utilization indicates the number of people now seeking fertility treatments is higher than it was pre-pandemic. In part this may be because almost 20% of women 35 to 45 surveyed say they would like to have more children than they planned pre-pandemic.

The desire for more children among older women could further drive demand for infertility treatment, given that women have less than a 5% chance of getting pregnant each month after they reach 40 years of age, which the oldest millennials will do this year.

Thankfully, millennials can turn to fertility apps for information, education, and support during their fertility journey.

Navigating the Fertility Journey

Fertility treatments can be costly and the fertility journey can be confusing and concerning. Many patients must resolve questions related to the affordability of fertility treatments as well as the effectiveness of particular treatments, yet maintain hope if they experience setbacks or disappointments.

Fertility apps help patients cope with stress and reduce anxiety by providing reliable information that hopeful parents need. For example, apps provide helpful information on stress-inducing issues such as the cost of treatment, access to care, and fear of failure.

Fertility apps also help patients navigate care. When deciding how to find a doctor, or determining the tests, procedures, and fertility treatments to use, patients often face many clinical challenges. Apps can assist patients with finding physicians, managing medications, connecting with specialists, and more. Some apps even provide fertility advisors and emotional-support resources for patients.

Choosing a Fertility App

Patients typically prefer the fertility apps providing end-to-end solutions that integrate tools and services across fertility, pregnancy, and post-partum assistance.

Health experts recommend reviewing apps for their usefulness, features, and benefits, such as their effectiveness in educating, engaging, and emotionally supporting patients.

The best fertility apps enable better outcomes for patients by providing broad support for growing families. For example, they can:

  • Offer treatment guidelines to ensure effective care with an increased opportunity of success per cycle.
  • Encourage patient engagement by assigning a dedicated fertility advisor who evaluates a patient's care needs and guides them toward the appropriate next steps.
  • Offer dedicated fertility advisors who help connect the patient with the right provider or clinic and provide ongoing practical guidance, medication support, and emotional care resources.

Apps may only be part of the broader fertility journey, but they play an increasingly important role as more digital-native millennials seek help with family planning. Fertility apps offer the information, education, and support that hopeful parents need, all in a familiar digital experience.

Learn about EviCore's FamilyPath program for fertility services and its robust, clinically reviewed patient app that supports growing families.