In an effort to stop the demographic loss, China is considering liberalizing access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) services countrywide. The Beijing government may permit unmarried and single women to store their eggs and have IVF treatment, according to local media sources. In addition, they will be qualified to receive child subsidies and take advantage of paid maternity leaves, both of which were previously exclusively available to married couples.
Despite the fact that these suggestions were made in March, Chinese leaders have not yet made any public remarks about them. These services are already accessible to single women in Shanghai and the southern province of Guangdong, according to Reuters, although IVF for unmarried women is still prohibited. “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.
If there is a sudden increase, China will have an even larger capacity issue
His company signed a distribution agreement with Onesky Holdings, a company based in Guangzhou, last year. Since then, his company has been waiting for regulatory approval to introduce its IVF technology in China. “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.
The National Health Commission (NHC) of China has previously stated that many young women are delaying marriage plans or having children later due to these factors, indicating that it has considerably contributed to dropping marriage rates. China now has 539 public and private IVF facilities, according to government estimates, and the NHC has stated that it intends to build one facility for every 2.3 million people by 2025, bringing the total beyond 600.
There are many single women who desire to receive IVF treatment lawfully in private clinics
According to academic publications and industry experts, both public and commercial healthcare systems yearly do 1 million rounds of IVF therapy, or cycles, compared to 1.5 million in the rest of the globe. In China, the cost of a cycle, which includes ovarian stimulation medicine, egg collection, laboratory insemination, and embryo transfer, is regulated. According to Reuters, it costs between $3,500 to $4,500, or approximately a fourth of US prices. There are many single women who desire to receive IVF treatment lawfully in private clinics, according to Chen, a 33-year-old divorcee who resides in Chengdu and is 10 weeks pregnant.
“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 legalized registration of children by unmarried women in February. “Equally, getting married or not is for each individual to decide. We have liberalized the policies here and I know a lot of single women are doing IVF,” she was quoted as saying.
