How FertilityJourney Works

Fertility information online is crowded with ads, sales pitches, and half-truths. This page explains how we make our content, how we pay for the work, and the lines we will not cross. We publish it so you can check us against it.

How our content is made

Every medical fact is cited to a primary source. Success rates, costs, timelines, and treatment claims cite organizations like SART, ASRM, the CDC, WHO, and peer-reviewed research. Each claim carries the date we last verified it.

Every claim is labeled by strength of evidence. We tell you plainly whether something is established medicine, an optional add-on, experimental, or wellness. Where the evidence is weak or clinicians disagree, we say so.

Every number we publish is verified against a primary source before it goes live. Medical, cost, and success-rate pages — the roadmaps, treatment timeline, comparisons, and quiz results — publish only when every figure on them is cited to peer-reviewed research or national registries (SART, CDC, ASRM, WHO), labeled by strength of evidence, with the verification date shown. We chose this standard deliberately: published, tested evidence over any one person's opinion. Some pages may additionally be reviewed by independent, credentialed clinicians; when that happens, we say so by name. A page says "Clinician-reviewed" or "Reviewed by [name]" only after a named reviewer has approved that exact version — never before, and never as a blanket claim. Our standard for what counts as a real review is written in our clinician review protocol.

Our plain-language research articles are AI-summarized from peer-reviewed studies, and we label them as such. For our library of explainer articles, we use AI to condense research that has already been peer-reviewed into plain language. We do not let AI invent claims, and we do not use it to answer your personal medical questions or produce a diagnosis. Every such article is checked by an automated triple accuracy check — three independent passes confirming each statement is faithful to its cited source, nothing is invented, and the numbers and denominators match — before it publishes. These articles carry a "summarized from peer-reviewed research" label. We never call them "expert-reviewed" or "clinician-reviewed," because no clinician signs them; if one of these articles introduces a medical or cost figure that isn't already on a source-verified page, that figure goes through our source-verification standard first.

We never use anecdotes as medical evidence. Stories matter for feeling less alone. They are never the basis of a medical recommendation.

AI never gives you medical answers. AI does not write our number-bearing pages, and it never answers an individual's medical questions, gives a diagnosis, or personalizes advice. Its one content role is the labeled research-summary work described above: condensing already-peer-reviewed studies into plain language, checked for faithfulness before publishing. Any other use (like site navigation) will be disclosed and will never generate medical answers.

When we get something wrong, we fix it in the open. Report errors to contact@fertilityjourney.org. Corrections are published on the affected page with the date and what changed.

How we are funded

FertilityJourney is built to run on donations and grants. We are operated by Fertility Journey LLC, and we plan to register as our own 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We do not accept donations yet — not from anyone — and we will only ask once that status is filed and we can tell you plainly where the paperwork stands. The current status will always be stated on this page. Any sponsorship we ever accept will be disclosed here, will never come from fertility providers, and will never touch educational content.

The lines we will not cross:

• Providers never pay us. No clinic, doctor, pharmacy, or fertility company can pay to appear on this site, ever.
• No pay-for-placement. Nothing on this site is ranked, featured, or recommended because someone paid.
• No affiliate money that could steer your medical choices. We will never earn money based on which treatment, clinic, or product you choose.
• No programmatic ad networks. If we ever show a sponsor, it will be individually vetted and clearly labeled, and pages about grief, loss, and hard moments will stay ad-free.

Our independence

We are an independent educational resource. We are not owned by, funded by, or affiliated with any fertility clinic, pharmaceutical company, or treatment provider. Which gifts we will and will not accept is governed by our gift acceptance policy. If we ever list specific providers, inclusion will be based on published criteria (certification, cost transparency, outcomes, patient experience, evidence-based practice), provider information will be controlled by us alone, and no provider will be able to pay for or edit their listing.

We are also outcome-neutral. Whether your path leads to treatment, a pause, other routes to family, or a different life than you planned, we have no stake in your choice. Our only goal is that you make it informed.

What we are not

We are an educational resource. We are not a medical provider, we do not give medical advice, and we cannot diagnose anything. Our full medical disclaimer and privacy promises say more.

Questions about anything on this page: contact@fertilityjourney.org.