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The Untold Stories of IVF

IVF Unmasked

#Unmasking IVF Explained

Originally posted June 6, 2017. Updated January 3, 2022 Welcome. We’re glad you found us. If it’s your first time visiting, here’s some background… On July 25, 2018, Louise Brown, the world’s first baby born via in-vitro fertilization (IVF), celebrated her 40th birthday. For those fortunate to have birthed healthy babies using IVF, this anniversary…
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January 3, 2022 15

IVF Survivorship: A New Field of Study

Abstract: IVF survivorship is a novel concept in the field of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and their attendant autoethnographies. It also disputes the ART industry’s preferred narratives of ‘curing’ infertility and ‘delivering on baby dreams’, ideas that play well in cultures that celebrate parenting. The ART industry was able to expand with impunity for decades…
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December 2, 2021 0
IVF Memoirs

Research: IVF survivorship, IVF memoirs and reproductive activism

Three IVF memoirs provide the basis for new analysis and scrutiny surrounding the IVF consumer journey experiences and ‘IVF survivorship’ Jennifer Takhar, Associate Professor of Marketing and Communication at ISG Business School and a research affiliate at the Linguistic and International Resources Center at the Graduate School of Communication and Journalism (CELSA) of the Sorbonne…
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September 20, 2021 1
IVF add-ons

IVF Add-Ons: Scientific, Ethical, Regulatory and Legal Considerations

Harvard Law’s Petrie-Flom Center recently hosted an event focused on IVF Add-ons. This event included several experts in reproductive medicine for a discussion of the scientific, ethical, regulatory, and legal considerations of IVF add-ons, with a particular focus on the add-on procedure known as PGT-A, preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy. Eli Adashi, Professor of Medical…
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December 20, 2020 0
egg freezing

The Speculative Turn in IVF: Egg Freezing and the Financialization of Fertility

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash Lucy van de Wiel’s research, published in New Genetics and Society, provides a chilling look at the role of money in the IVF and egg freezing fields. She notes that venture capitalists and private equity firms see big financial returns and choose to fund egg freezing companies because unlike…
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September 30, 2020 0
IVF clinics

IVF Clinics Set Unrealistic Expectations

Will IVF clinics continue to mislead consumers? At today’s annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) embryologist Johanna Devroe from the University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium, presented a study showing that couples embarking on IVF to treat their infertility tend to overestimate their chance of success. The message to clinics:…
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July 7, 2020 0
IVF Add on

The Big IVF Add-on Racket

  ReproTechTruths co-founder Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos wrote this op-ed for The New York Times. Titled The Big IVF Add On Racket, it brings much needed attention to the unethical way IVF add-ons are developed and sold to patients seeking help to become pregnant. This piece calls attention to several new papers published this month in…
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December 12, 2019 2
IVF clinics

‘Predatory’ Advertising by IVF Clinics

  At the 2019 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Scientific Congress in Philadelphia Dr. May-Tal Sauerbrun-Cutler presented her study, “IVF clinic websites: buyer beware the system is broken.’ You can download her paper here. Buyer Beware Medscape Medical News reported on Sauerbrun-Cutler’s study of 361 IVF clinics. Excerpt below. Not all in vitro fertilization (IVF)…
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December 2, 2019 1
body

Stored IVF Trauma: The Body is the Ultimate Storyteller

The following essay comes from a former IVF patient. She underwent multiple failed IVF and ‘donor’ egg cycles. In the years since, she has endured a series of health issues. The IVF industry’s failure to collect health data leaves patients who’ve undergone assisted reproductive technology procedures with guesswork and unnecessary suffering. The lack of longitudinal…
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October 1, 2019 0
treatment

‘Don’t Give Up’ Imposes Stress, Unknowns and Grief

Elaine lives in Switzerland and was 35 when she started treatment. She began writing a blog about her life without children, grief and other related topics. Her goal is to break the taboo of involuntary childlessness and to provide a safe place for other women on a similar journey. She works in a cultural institution…
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June 24, 2019 1