If I was Miss America

First, let me tell you a little story. When I was 17 my best friend, Jessica, and I decided that we would compete in our local Miss Magic Valley Pageant, which was part of the Miss America organization. It's likely that, had we gone through with it, one of us would have eventually become Miss America. Highly likely.

But we didn't. We had priorities, and the pageant became less important when we found out it was being held on the same day that we could move into our apartment at Ricks College. We could have participated in the pageant and then moved in the next day, but we wanted to get there early to ensure we would share a bedroom.

We had chosen to live at the Colonial House, and in our mailed information we were told that check-in was no earlier than 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 10th, 1999. (This is where Dave will wonder why I have such a good memory of some things and such a bad memory of the things he wants me to remember.)  We decided we would get to Rexburg early and be ready to check in promptly at 2:00. 

When we got to Rexburg, around 1:00 or so, we were surprised to find that they had already checked everyone else into our 3-bedroom apartment. This meant that there were only 2 beds left, in separate bedrooms. We asked if someone would switch rooms so we could share a bedroom. We even showed them our matching bedspreads, but no one would budge. 

Brats. 

So I ended up sharing a bedroom that summer with Sara from California. She was nice enough. 

We gave up our chance to be beauty queens just so we could share a bedroom, and it backfired. But life went on. Sara moved out in the fall and Jessica moved in with me. Good thing, too, because later our roommates turned on us and we needed the refuge. 

Anyway, if I would have gone ahead with the pageant back then, my platform would have been to support music education in schools. That's something I still think is very important. 

However, if I was Miss America today I would FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT for infertility benefits. 

It frustrates me that people (like myself) who struggle with infertility, even with good insurance, don't get better benefits to make treatment more possible. I suppose those who decide what benefits to offer might not view infertility as an illness that needs to be treated, but why not?

Is my body not supposed to be able to function that way? Most people's bodies reproduce. If mine doesn't, which it is supposed to, why would that not be seen as something that should be covered as well as other health problems are covered?

I was lucky that I didn't have to have very much treatment before I was pregnant with my son. But we've been trying for a while again and it's not happening, so I've been looking into our benefits. We do have some benefits, but they're not great. So if we need extensive treatment this time around, much of it could be out of pocket. 

There's nothing wrong with having to save money for something that you want. But I just don't understand why infertility is not treated as the health issue that it is.