Making babymaking better
the main treatment for infertility around the world. At least 12m people have been conceived in glassware. An IVF baby takes its first gulp of air roughly every 45 seconds.
IVF babies are just as healthy and unremarkable as any others. Yet to their parents, most of whom struggle with infertility for months or years, they are nothing short of miraculous. In a world where one person in six suffers from infertility, such successes are rightly celebrated.
Less discussed are the problems of IVF. Most courses of treatment fail. That subjects women and couples to cycles of dreaming and dejection—and gives the fertility industry an incentive to sell false hope.
The obstacle is a lack of progress in understanding the basic mechanisms that determine fertility. At last, however, the science is making headway, holding out more promise and less heartache for generations of parents to come. Over the years IVF has become better at making babies and safer for the women who bear the brunt of the treatment.
The rate of twin and triplet deliveries has plummeted, reducing the number of risky pregnancies. Hormone treatments are safer. Combined with egg and sperm freezing, donation and surrogacy, IVF has given many, including same-sex couples and singletons, a path to parenthood where they had none.
Yet the process remains gruelling and costly. It is physically painful for women, and emotionally draining for both sexes. For many, fertility treatment is an unaffordable luxury; in America, for instance, a cycle can cost $20,000.
Some countries ration treatment according to a conservative moral code. Until 2021 French law permitted IVF only for married heterosexual couples. Many countries including China forbid egg freezing, which extends
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