IVF for career women: 'social' egg freezing, China’s fertility TV channel and a baby-making reality show
- Pay-as-you-freeze model allows women to harvest eggs when they are most fertile and store them for longer and more cheaply
- Doctor behind the programme says by the time most women turn to IVF in their 30s the quality of their eggs is declining
Helping people make babies is big business. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment at a Hong Kong private hospital costs around US$13,000 – without a guarantee of success. Online forums for parents are filled with sad stories of exorbitant but fruitless infertility treatments.
To offer more payment flexibility, Singapore-based Borderless Health Care Group has launched XY. Life clinics in Thailand and Australia, a franchise providing social egg freezing on a pay-as-you-freeze model. After an upfront payment of US$999 to US$2,999, clients pay as little as US$2.95 per day to freeze their eggs.
“Social” egg freezing allows women to harvest and store their eggs while they are healthy and most fertile, to be used when they are ready to have a baby, perhaps after they have found a life partner or gained a foothold on the career ladder.
The group’s founder and executive chairman Dr Wei Siang Yu says its service differs from that of traditional IVF doctors, who give a price of around US$5,800 to US$11,000 for an egg harvesting procedure plus egg storage for two to three years.
“Most countries do not subsidise social egg freezing. If women are in their 20s and want to freeze eggs, they need to fork out a lot of money. Our model provides an easier way to pay,” he says.
