New Hope Fertility Center in Manhattan, NY recently held a lottery in which entrants could win a $30,000 round of in-vitro fertilization.

The lottery was Dr. John Zhang’s idea, his way of “giving back” to the many patients who cannot afford the often-overwhelming price tag of IVF treatments. Dr. Zhang is the Medical Director and CEO of the fertility center. Over 500 couples from all over the country entered the contest and the results were announced live on Facebook on May 5th.

For those couples who entered but were not among the 30 entrants randomly chosen to win the big prize, Dr. Zhang is offering a free consultation via Skype. He says he and his staff are committed to helping couples work through the financial and emotional process of infertility treatments to have a baby. One in 8 women struggles with some form of infertility and he believes they all can be helped.

The contest ran during National Infertility Awareness Week and was intended to be a meaningful way to not just raise awareness of the issues of infertility but also to tangibly help the very people for whom the issues are the most personal. There were entrants from all over the United States. Several other countries were represented as well. The clinic’s marketing director, Geoffrey Hawkes, said “We had so many people saying that the inability to have a child was tearing their relationships apart and that the only thing stopping them was money.”

The clinic hopes to be able to run the lottery again next year.

Photo: Courtesy of Facebook/New Hope Fertility Center