As China tries to slow its demographic decline, women like Chen Luojin could be part of the solution.
Liberalizing IVF nationwide could unleash more demand for fertility treatment in what is already the world’s biggest market, straining limited fertility services. Some investors in the industry see an opportunity to expand. Lyppens said most IVF clinics in China operated at full capacity before the COVID-19 pandemic, and are likely to be in a similar situation again soon as the country has lifted virus-related curbs. There are no estimates for how many patients want but cannot access treatment, but some women benefiting from it say they spend hours waiting for their turn.
China has 539 public and private IVF facilities, and the NHC has said it aims to set up one facility for every 2.3 million people by 2025, which would take the total above 600. Gender power imbalances, the stigma in Chinese society that single pregnant women face, and the lack of social surveys make it difficult to quantify total demand and how much it would grow should the reforms be introduced in the near future, industry experts say.Camila Caso, director of platform at Recharge Capital, which invests in fertility clinics and technology, said 500,000 IVF cycles are provided to Chinese women annually in clinics in other countries – a third of all cycles outside China.
Lu Weiying, a Chinese political adviser and chief expert at the Reproductive Medical Center of Women and Children in China’s southern Hainan province, said she submitted a proposal to the country’s leaders in March to give single women access to egg freezing, a procedure more and more people were seeking.