Today's post is a special one: This is my 100th post on this blog. Can you believe it?

As I was scanning over the Fertility blog to think about a topic, I noticed that one of our sponsors is a fertility loan center. What a great idea!

I have never heard of a fertility loan, but I have no doubt that there are many people who could use one. With insurance companies limiting their coverage of fertility procedures and many procedures costing thousands of dollars, many couples will need to find ways to finance their dream of becoming parents. There are not many couples with tens of thousand of dollars sitting around waiting to be spent. (I looked for a money tree in my backyard, but no luck.)

I know one couple who took out a home equity loan to finance their fertility procedures. They never succeeded in conceiving and went on to adopt two children. I cannot imagine the frustration of having to pay off a home equity loan that did not result in conceiving a baby. That must have been emotionally painful for them each month. It would be doubly frustrating to have the lien against your house when no baby resulted from the procedures. I suspect they were able to use some of the funds to pay toward the adoptions, so it all worked out.

What would be even more frustrating is living your life wondering if you could have conceived if only you had the money to try another type of procedure. I have friends who conceived with their first intrauterine insemination (IUI) or with their first in vitro fertilization (IVF). It is hard to imagine that their children would not exist today if finances had limited them from trying these procedures just one time.

What is nice about the fertility loan is that, unlike a home equity loan, it does not put a lien on your assets. The sponsor also says the process is paperless, which sure sounds good to me!

I am excited to learn about this way to help finance fertility treatments. Goodness knows fertility-challenged couples need all the help they can get!

Related Topics:

• The Business of Fertility: How much Would You Pay to Have a Baby?
• How to Finance Fertility Treatments

Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt