China is mulling to liberalise in-vitro fertility (IVF) treatment facility nationwide as it seeks to reverse the demographic decline.
According to local media reports, the authorities in Beijing might allow unmarried and single women to freeze their eggs and obtain IVF treatment. Apart from that, they will be allowed to avail paid maternity leaves and receive child subsidies previously only available to married couples.
Though these recommendations were proposed in March, Chinese leaders are yet to comment publicly on the recommendations.
According to Reuters, these services are already available to unmarried women in Shanghai and the southern Guangdong province, but IVF for single women remain banned.
“If China changes their policy to allow single women to have children, this can result in an increase of IVF demand,” Yve Lyppens, director of business development for Asia Pacific at INVO Bioscience, told Reuters news agency.
His firm has been awaiting regulatory approval to launch its IVF technology in China after signing a distribution agreement with Guangzhou-based Onesky Holdings last year.
“However, if there is a sudden increase, China will have an even larger capacity issue,” he was quoted as saying.
Among the many reasons attributed to the fall in birth rate is the high costs of education and child-rearing.
China’s shrinking population and constraints on its future power
In the past, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) noted that many young women are delaying marriage plans or having children late due to these reasons, indicating that it has significantly contributed to declining marriage rates.
According to government estimates, 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.
Both public and private, provide about 1 million rounds of IVF treatment – or cycles – annually, compared with 1.5 million in the rest of the world, according to academic journals and industry experts.
The price for a cycle – which involves medication for ovarian stimulation, egg collection, insemination in a laboratory and embryo transfer – is regulated in China. It ranges between $3,500 and $4,500, about a quarter of US prices, according to Reuters.
Chen, a divorced 33-year-old who lives in Chengdu and is 10 weeks pregnant, said there are a lot of single women who want to get IVF treatment legally in private clinics.
“Becoming a single parent is not for everyone, but I’m happy with the decision,” said Chen, who works in logistics and lives in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern Sichuan province, which legalised registration of children by unmarried women in February.
“Equally, getting married or not is for each individual to decide. We have liberalised the policies here and I know a lot of single women are doing IVF,” she was quoted as saying.
(With inputs from agencies)
