The Pentagon will soon cover fertility preservation costs for certain service members before hazardous deployments or lengthy separations from their partners. The practical benefit recognizes an obvious reality: Military orders and combat injuries can upend family plans in an instant.

The Department of War is expected to launch the three year pilot in September, according to a notice scheduled for publication in the Federal Register. Eligible troops will be reimbursed for preserving sperm or eggs before qualifying deployments and separations.

The benefit was mandated by the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. It will provide up to $500 each year for sperm retrieval and cryopreservation, while egg preservation services may be reimbursed up to $10,000 annually.

Eligibility includes active duty Department of War personnel who receive orders that qualify them for hazardous duty pay. Troops who expect to receive such orders within 120 days may also participate.

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The program also covers service members geographically separated for at least 180 days from a “spouse, domestic partner or dating partner” because of military orders. That provision broadens access beyond combat deployments to recognize the strain created by extended military separations.

Military families and family planning advocates have spent more than a decade pushing for better fertility services. Their priorities have included sperm and egg preservation before combat deployments, in vitro fertilization, counseling and other advanced reproductive treatments.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation highlighted the issue during a specialized two day conference in 2014 focused on intimacy and family concerns among combat injured troops. Participants called for broader access to fertility counseling, gamete banking and reproductive treatment for wounded personnel.

The need was hardly theoretical. Nearly 2,000 troops suffered debilitating injuries to their groins or genital regions between 2000 and 2013, while roughly 307,000 service members experienced some form of head injury during that period.

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Such wounds can affect fertility, hormone function and sex drive, creating consequences that persist long after a service member leaves the battlefield. Preserving reproductive material before deployment can therefore provide troops and their families with options if the worst occurs.

In 2016, then Pentagon chief Ash Carter announced plans to cover sperm and egg freezing for service members. That proposed pilot never materialized after President Donald Trump won the election later that year, leaving families to seek private assistance or pay the costs themselves.

Some military families have spent substantial sums on cryopreservation as a safeguard. In extreme circumstances, relatives have pursued sperm retrieval from dying or deceased loved ones to preserve the possibility of future children.

The parents of West Point Cadet Peter Zhu obtained their son’s sperm after he was fatally injured in a 2019 skiing accident. They argued in court that Zhu had expressed a desire to build a family someday and wanted to preserve that possibility.

Israel has also confronted the issue during the Gaza war. According to The New York Times, its military began offering families the option of retrieving sperm from deceased service members when officials delivered casualty notifications.

Since at least 2022, groups including the Military Family Building Coalition and Resolve: The National Infertility Association have offered free preservation services to some troops. Until this pilot, however, deploying service members had no comparable government assistance specifically dedicated to the procedure.

Participants may receive services through a military treatment facility with a reproductive program or select a civilian clinic. Because the Defense Health Agency cannot access military orders, commanders must validate eligibility and provide written confirmation before reimbursement can be approved.

Requests for reimbursement must be filed within 120 days after covered services begin, generally measured from the date of retrieval, a prescription or a laboratory procedure. Troops must provide itemized invoices and submit DHA Form 459.

Service members may qualify more than once during the three year pilot. Decisions involving storage, disposition or future use “are solely the responsibility of the covered member and outside the scope of the program,” according to the announcement.

Officials plan to evaluate participation, expenses, long term feasibility and effects on military readiness. Additional information about the new benefit is scheduled to appear in the Aug. 13 edition of the Federal Register.

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