Barbados Promotes Baby-Making Fertility-Clinic Vacations

Barbados Promotes Baby-Making Fertility-Clinic Vacations
By Kitty Bean Yancey, USA TODAY

Many couples go on a honeymoon or vacation with the idea of making a baby. But Barbados is upping the odds by promoting itself as a center for affordable, in vitro fertilization procedures and other treatments to increase the odds of a pregnancy.

In this latest twist on the growing trend of going overseas for cosmetic surgery, dentistry and other medical treatment, the Caribbean island’s Barbados Fertility Centre, located in what the tourist board describes as “a plantation-style facility” in Christ Church, offers treatments for $400-$8,500 . IVF -- in which an egg is fertilized outside the body and then placed in a woman’s uterus -- starts at about $6,000, not including medications, which can add a couple of thousand dollars. But that’s cheaper than the $10,000 and up typical in the USA. Fertility packages, including air, lodging and certain treatments are available.

This is the first time I’ve heard of a promotion like this. Then I found ivfvacation.com, started by a formerly fertility-challenged couple, which promotes IVF procedures in the Czech Republic that are even cheaper than those in Barbados. Check out that website here.

Know of any other such services promoted to travelers? Are IVF vacations the wave of the future?