About
Benefits research, translated into decisions you can actually make
FamilyBuildingCo exists because fertility coverage is written for insurers, not for the people using it. The work here is unglamorous and specific: read the plan documents, find the clause that decides the money, and hand you the question that gets a straight answer.
I spent five years as a financial coordinator inside fertility clinics, working directly with third-party fertility benefit administrators. I ran the benefit checks, built the treatment estimates, and had the conversation where a patient found out what their plan would really cover. This site is that same work, on your side of the desk.
The service combines three things that are usually scattered — a job search filtered by fertility benefits, an employer benefit directory built from public sources, and one-to-one coaching on using the benefit you already have.
Your coach
Zanaysia Sutherland
Fertility benefits coach & founder
I started FamilyBuildingCo after watching too many people leave fertility clinics confused about what their plan would actually pay for. My job was to run the numbers before treatment started — and to explain the gap between what a benefit promised and what the bill said.
I also know what it feels like to be on the other side. I once had a state-funded Medicaid plan that left me with no fertility options and no one to guide me. That confusion forced me to do my own research — searching for companies that covered IVF, IUI and egg freezing so I could build the family I wanted. One job changed everything: its fertility benefit paid for my IVF and egg-freezing treatment, which conceived my daughter and the future children I now have frozen embryos for.
That experience is what I bring to coaching: a clear read on plan language, the right questions for your administrator or HR team, and a roadmap that matches your family-building path — whether that involves IVF, IUI, egg freezing, donor gametes, surrogacy, adoption, or preservation.
I'm not here to replace your clinic or your insurer. I'm here to help you understand the rules, use the benefits you've earned, and advocate for yourself with confidence.
Background
Fertility coverage advice usually comes from one of two places: people who understand insurance but have never priced a cycle, or people who've been through treatment but only saw their own plan. My background is the seat in between.
5 years as a fertility clinic financial coordinator
The role that sits between the patient, the clinic, and the payer — running benefit checks, building treatment cost estimates, and explaining what a plan would and wouldn't pay for before a cycle started.
Direct work with third-party benefit administrators
Day-to-day contact with the fertility benefit managers and carriers that sit in front of employer plans — verifying coverage, confirming authorization requirements, and tracking how a cycle or dollar maximum was actually applied.
Treatment financials, not just plan language
Cycle estimates, medication costs, storage and genetic testing add-ons, and the difference between what a benefit quotes and what a patient ends up paying. That's the gap most coverage advice misses.
Clinic-side experience is why the coaching focuses on the details that decide the bill — how a maximum is applied, where medication sits, what the administrator needs before they authorize — rather than a general summary of what fertility benefits are.
How the research works
Public sources only
Every employer entry is built from publicly available material — published benefits guides, careers-site benefit pages, open enrollment documents and public vendor announcements. No confidential vendor books of business, no leaked documents.
Dated and attributed
Each employer record shows the source type and the month it was last verified. Coverage changes at plan-year boundaries, so a date without a source — or a source without a date — isn't good enough to act on.
Reader reports, then re-verification
Visitors can report what their employer covers. Those reports go into a review queue as leads to check, not as published facts. Nothing appears in the directory until it can be matched against a public document.
What a coaching call produces
Every call ends with a written one-page coverage summary. It looks like this:
Sample output — coverage summary
- Your benefit administrator and how to reach them, in writing
- Whether your maximum is cycle-based, dollar-based, or both — and the exact figure
- Where medication sits: same maximum, or separate pharmacy benefit
- The documented prerequisites that must happen before IVF or egg freezing is authorized
- Eligibility terms, effective dates, and what a job change would do to them
- A prioritized list of who to call, in what order, with the wording to use
Example structure only — your summary reflects your own plan documents.
What this is not
This is benefits and career guidance. It is not medical, legal or tax advice, and it is not insurance brokerage or plan administration. I don't submit prior authorizations or file appeals — only you, your clinic, or an authorized representative can do that. What I do is help you understand the requirement, organize the documents, and prepare the questions and wording you'll use.
Who this is usually for
The situations that come up most often on calls:
- You have a fertility benefit but can't tell what it actually pays for, or whether medication is included.
- You were quoted a treatment cost by a clinic and want to know what your plan should be absorbing before you pay it.
- You're deciding between job offers and want to compare the fertility benefits honestly, not by the marketing page.
- Your plan has no fertility coverage and you need a realistic plan: grants, preservation programs, and what to ask HR at open enrollment.
- You've been told you don't meet the plan's definition of infertility and want to understand the requirement.
- You're preparing to ask HR to add or improve a fertility benefit and want the wording and the business case.