Does egg freezing give false hope to prospective parents? | The Economist

The fertility business is booming—egg freezing is being sold to a generation of men and women increasingly interested in deferring parenthood. But is optimistic marketing giving false hope? Read more here: On July 25th, 1978, in Oldham, England, a baby girl named Louise was born. Unlike any baby before her, Louise was conceived in a Petri dish by a remarkable new procedure known as in-vitro fertilisation, or IVF. Since then, millions of so-called ‘test-tube babies’ have been born. Today, 1 in 60 American births is thanks to IVF and other fertility treatments, which have spawned a booming new industry in many different countries. But are fertility businesses making promises they can’t keep? Sacha Nauta can help answer that. She’s the public policy editor at The Economist. IVF provides a valuable option for people who for whatever reason are unable to conceive. But there’s another emerging market. That’s freezing of egg or sperm cells for IVF in the fut