OK, I have become an unwanted expert on the price on getting pregnant. All last year, I spent thousands of dollars in an attempt to become pregnant but had difficultly due to having PCOD. I underwent several rounds of Clomid, was able to ovulate, but did not conceive. Then after that they wanted to do AI (artificial insemination), which costs approximately $1000.00 Then I was only given a 17 percent chance of pregnancy. Then if that failed they wanted to do IVF, which costs $10,000, but then was given only a 30 percent chance of pregnancy (these statistics that the fertility clinic give you are really misleading, they may get you pregnant but they don't tell you 1/3 of all pregnancies end in miscarriage.) My insurance paid for 1/2 of the initial treatments (no telling what my cost would have been if I didn't have that), but didn't pay IVF or AI. The financial costs are one side of the issue, the emotional side is REALLY disturbing. I was going crazy, going from work to the clinic to have a sonogram to see if I had ovulated, etc. I saw people whipping out the credit card to pay for these treatments. I mean, this infertility stuff is a money making venture for the doctors who run this clinic. Of course, if you have success with it, it's worth every dime you paid, but if not, you're out tons of $$ and paid for that doctor to live in a really nice McMansion with controlled access and everything!
I decided that I coudn't handle the emotional aspects of this. I was getting suicidal (think it was the medicine that had something to do with it, I mean these hormones they give you make you do crazy things sometimes.) I decided to try alternative herbal remedies such as Vitex (to make me regular) and natural progesterone (to help with the estrogen dominance.) It's a whole lot cheaper than sinking your money down an infertility rathole.
Has your coworker thought about adoption? For the price of 2 rounds of IVF, your coworker can adopt a kid. Your coworker though, may be really into having her own kid, despite the cost. That's what a lot of these clinics prey upon - I remember meeting one lady in the waiting room who wanted her child to look like her - which is why she hadn't tried adoption. Mind you, she had spent $30,000 at that clinic and had failed to become knocked up.
Pardon my venting, but there are two sides to every story. Mind isn't negative, just telling the truth about a money making venture known as infertility!