Infertility Is a Medical Disease. So, Why Is Fertility Care Still a Luxury for Latinas?

Dr. Temeka Zore, a double board-certified OB-GYN and fertility specialist, appeared on a recent episode of CBS News’ Healthful with Norah O’Donnell, where they discussed infertility, endometriosis, PMOS (formerly PCOS), egg freezing, ovarian reserve, and what women should know about their fertility. On the show, Dr. Zore notes that the World Health Organization has classified infertility as a medical disease, yet access to the care used to diagnose and treat it remains deeply unequal—and often out of reach.

This isn’t new. The WHO defined infertility as a disease of the reproductive system back in 2009. For more than 15 years, the organization has recognized infertility as a disease, and its new global guidelines, which were issued in 2025, make an even stronger case for equitable access to fertility care. In the episode, Dr. Zore also addresses many of the misconceptions and misinformation surrounding fertility—and how it’s often treated as a personal failure.

“So many women, so many people come in and want to blame themselves for this diagnosis, but it’s not your fault if you have infertility,” she says. “You didn’t cause this on yourself, and so it does require treatment for many people. I think we have to have that perspective. There’s not a taboo topic here. It’s a true medical disease.”

Dr. Zore clears up one particular misconception: that infertility is an aging disease, a condition that only affects women past a certain age.

“You have a higher chance of being infertile the older you’re trying to have kids, but at the same incidence I can have a 28-year-old who has been trying with their partner for a year not being able to get pregnant,” she says. “And that’s the woman coming in saying, ‘I don’t understand. I’m young. I’m healthy. I do XY and Z. Why am I not pregnant?’ And there are so many reasons biologically that could explain why somebody is not getting pregnant.”

Dr. Zore explains that while the technology for procedures like egg freezing and IVF has significantly improved—and there are more fertility clinics in the country than ever before—accessibility remains a major issue, especially because most of these treatments are still not covered by insurance.

And while the fertility conversation is finally shifting from blaming women to empowering them with information and medical options, empowerment isn’t as meaningful if those options are only available to people who can afford to pay out of pocket. For Latinas in particular, along with other women of color who already face disparities in healthcare access and wealth, fertility care can remain financially out of reach. But if we’re truly reframing infertility as a medical disease, then why aren’t things like egg freezing, IVF, IUI, and fertility medications treated as healthcare necessities rather than luxuries?

The healthcare system is essentially telling women that while it acknowledges their condition is medically real, treatment is still the woman’s—or the couple’s—financial responsibility. That’s a devastating message.

Cost and lack of insurance coverage remain the biggest barriers to fertility treatment, with lower-income and minority communities disproportionately affected. With one round of egg freezing costing between $8,000 and $15,000 depending on the clinic, Latinas are still the least likely to undergo the procedure. Only 3.4% to 4.5% of Latina patients undergo egg freezing or related fertility preservation cycles in the United States. This is why Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been so transparent about her own egg-freezing journey and how much it costs. If this is a medical condition that’s become as common as it has, women shouldn’t be expected to pay thousands of dollars out of their own pockets to cover it.

When care isn’t accessible, women who can’t afford treatment can internalize the idea that they didn’t try hard enough to come up with the money—because if other women found it, why couldn’t they? All it does is create an emotional burden where women blame themselves when, in reality, their reproductive future shouldn’t depend on their socioeconomic status.

As someone who lucked out and had my egg-freezing treatment covered last year in exchange for coverage at my last job, I can’t say enough about how unfair this is. We can’t tell women they should be more informed about their reproductive health and that they should be freezing their eggs—and then ignore the economic barriers that determine whether they can actually do any of those things.

Referring to infertility as a disease is an important step toward removing the blame and shame women often carry. But if we don’t actually make fertility care accessible, we’re effectively blaming women for not being able to afford it. If infertility is a disease, then the ability to treat it shouldn’t depend on whether a woman can afford it. Period.