Local infertility group to hold public forum Saturday

The Pay It Forward Fertility Foundation, a Raleigh nonprofit that awards grants to couples seeking fertility treatment, is holding its annual education forum on Saturday. It's open to the public.

The forum comes during National Infertility Awareness Week and will include information about infertility, IVF, financial options, surrogacy, adoption and other topics. The keynote speaker is Joanne Verkuilen, founder and CEO of Circle + Bloom. The program is geared toward both women who are trying to have their first child and those who already have a child and are now struggling with infertility.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10 percent of women will have trouble getting pregnant or staying pregnant.

Lori and Rob Moscato founded the group after their daughter was conceived through IVF. She was born in 2006. They were able to conceive a second child, a son, on their own.

“We were fortunate to have health insurance coverage for our IVF treatments but we know most people don’t," Lori writes on the group's website. "We want to help those couples because we can’t imagine life without our beautiful children and we want to pay it forward.”

The 2011 Pay It Forward Fertility Forum is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Mariott Crabtree Valley in Raleigh. The cost is $20 per person or $30 per couple.

For more information and to register for the forum, go to www.payitforwardfertility.org.