After four ‘heartbreaking’ rounds of IVF at a private clinic, Cassie put her hopes in the hands of Victoria’s public fertility service

Costing up to $10,000 a cycle, in vitro fertilisation is big business. Calls are growing across Australia to make treatment more affordable

Cassie Van Swol and her husband, Steven, spent $40,000 and took out a second mortgage chasing the promise of parenthood.

“The whole time they kept telling me, ‘We’ll just get you pregnant,’” she says of their private IVF provider.