Wilson County family travels to Barbados for IVF treatments

WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Wilson County couple is sharing their pregnancy journey after they had both of their children through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

This comes when there are still questions about the future of IVF, after the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and no mandate for insurance companies in Tennessee to cover infertility treatments.

News 2 sat down with the couple who are just one of thousands of couples who travelled overseas to become pregnant.

“This is our son August, he is two and [will be] three in a few weeks and this is our daughter Parker,” Caitlin Purnell said.

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The Purnells thank science for their two little ones. For Caitlin and Walter, they shared their entire pregnancy journey through social media. After years of struggling to get pregnant, they decided to get testing done.

“You take the necessary steps to prepare yourself emotionally, financially to be a parent then you have this hiccup and it’s uncontrollable,” Walter said.

The Purnells were told their only option to conceive was through IVF. It was a not-so-realistic procedure when they were quoted $25,000 per round of treatment at a Nashville fertility clinic.

“Most patients seem to pay entirely out of pocket and that’s not a small chunk of change, $25,000,” Caitlin said.

Through a friend, the Purnells found a clinic in Barbados which was at least half the cost with a greater success rate.

“90 percent of the patients don’t live on the island of Barbados and travel from the USA,” said Dr. Juliet Skinner, the medical director for the Barbados facility center.

Dr. Skinner was one of the Purnells’ doctors. She said most patients that come to the island for treatment are from the US as only 21 states offer some type of fertility insurance coverage law.

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And after the IVF treatment was put on pause for some time in Alabama, Dr. Skinner said many couples feel helpless.

“We have embryos left over, and we haven’t decided yet if we are done adding to our family and I said to him thank God our embryos are not in the US and we know that they are safe,” Caitlin said.

Now the Purnells are sharing their story with others and opening a conversation about IVF and letting couples know there are options.

“Recently we took a step back and realized, wow, we are here, all the things we dreamed and prayed for are here. Parenting is everything we’d hope it would be,” Caitlin said.

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