The medical and popular press are quite active in the areas of fertility, infertility and surogacy owning largely to new advances in treatments and newly available non-medical solutions (such as surrogacy). The activity can be attributed to improved financial resources among many families who have postponed child-bearing till a later age, later marriage, and to the growth in non-traditional familes.

Fertility News and Articles

The following are a selection of news and articles on fertility issues. If you know of some articles we haven't listed, please let us know by using our contact form.

  • Surge In Egg Donors, Surrogate Moms Amid Downturn CBS 2 Chicago, November 23, 2008. In these tough times, many young women are turning to the baby business. The number of surrogate mothers or egg donors is up 30 percent, CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports. The people at Alternative Reproductive Resources say since the economic downturn they've been putting in a lot more phone time each and every day. “If we got 50 to 60 calls before, it's probably 75 to 100 calls now,” company president Robin von Halle said. All from women — inquiring about how they can help someone realize the dream of having a baby. They earn money in the process. A qualified egg donor is compensated $7,000; gestational surrogates receive $25,000... Read more at the CBS 2 Chicago.
  • 35 Year Career Helping Others Beat Infertility Mansfield News Journal, October 29, 2007. Nellie Foster has spent more than 25 years working in laboratories especially focused on OB/GYN and fertility. Much of her experience arose from her years at the Arizona Institute for Fertility Medicine. Currently at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, her carrer offers an upclose look at advances in fertility medicine and the advantages this brings to people looking to develop a nurturing family in spite of medical and health roadblocks. Read more at the Mansfield News Journal.
  • Fertility Drugs Concern Experts St Cloud Times, October 28, 2007. When Christina took a home pregnancy test that was positive, they were ecstatic. They knew twins or triplets were a possibility, but they weren't prepared for the first ultrasound. It clearly showed five tiny heartbeats. Fertility drugs such as those taken by Christina are the major reason for the increase of births with four or more babies. Medical experts say the cost of multiple births, in both human and financial terms, is difficult to measure. “We put an enormous burden on the medical community or on society to pay for these,” said Dr. Ted Nagel, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Minnesota. Read more at the St Cloud Times.
  • Judge Rules Surrogate Mother Keeps Child Tampa Bay 10, October 11, 2007. A Jacksonville judge has ruled that an Oviedo couple are not the legal parents of a baby they hired a surrogate mother to bear. According to state law, a pregnant mother giving up her child for adoption can change her mind at any point, even 48 hours after giving birth. Read more at Tampa Bay 10 Online.
  • Surrogate Mom's Goal: To Make a Difference Mason City (IA) Globe Gazette, October 6, 2007. Katie Nelson soon will give birth to her second pair of twins in five years. This time, however, the twins she is carrying will go home with someone else. The 32–year-old Mason City woman is a surrogate mother for a Colorado couple. Katie and her husband, Scott, 38, are parents of twin sons, Jacob and Blake, who were born New Year’s Day 2002. “I wanted to make a difference in someone's life,” said Katie, from her hospital bed at Mercy Medical Center–Des Moines, where she was placed on bed rest Aug. 4. “I enjoyed being pregnant,” she said. “I didn't look at it as being an inconvenience.” It took a few years to convince Scott that surrogacy was the thing to do. “I kept saying no,” he said. “I didn't feel comfortable with it. I thought what would the kids think? I didn't know what other people would think. It just seemed odd to me.” Ultimately, Scott agreed. He said he didn't want his wife to have regrets later on for not having done it. Read more at the Mason City Globe Gazette.
  • Oprah delivers Gujarat's surrogate mums Daily News Analysis India, September 26, 2007. Oprah Winfrey is producing a 45 minute documentary which will trace the extraordinary social trajectory of the women, how they rose from their modest backgrounds and entered a life of plush comfort. And how, along the way, they provided immeasurable joy to scores of childless couples. A good number of salaried middle–class women in Anand have assumed surrogacy to boost earnings. In most cases, they get between Rs2.5 lakh to Rs5 lakh per delivery. In the US, surrogacy costs around $50,000 (Rs1,98,000), excluding medical bills and charges for agencies that find surrogate mothers. The cost consideration apart, childless couples across the globe choose India because of the refined cultural background of the middle-class surrogate mothers. Read more at the Daily News Analysis India.
  • Time for open debate on who should be eligible for IVF Canberra Times, September 24, 2007. A lesbian couple's lawsuit has forced the debate in Australia over who should have access to state funded IVF treatments into prominence. A recent decision by the Victorian Law Reform Commission recommends the procedure be made available to lesbians and single women. Read more at the Canberra Times.
  • Virginia Beach fertility doctor celebrates birth with patients yearly Hampton Road Virginia Pilot, September 23, 2007. More thasn 1300 people attended Dr. robin Poe-Zeigler's 10th “family reunion&rdquo at her New Hope Center for Reproductive Medicine in Virginia Beach. Almost all were parents who used the center or children concieved through its work. Read more at the Virginia Pilot.
  • The Baby Factory New York Press, August 29, 2007. One of the best articles on the egg donation process we ahve seen. A Columbia student, a feminist, reads an ad offering up to $8000 for egg donation. She tells the story of her foray into the assisted reproduction segment of reporductive medicine. Read more at the New York Press
  • Texas Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Frozen Embryo Dispute Ericson Law, August 30, 2007. The court refused to intervene in a case covering frozen embryos in a divorce dispute. The contract with the assisted reporduction operator stipulated that embryos be destroyed in the case of divorce. Read more at e Media Wire
  • Surrogate mothers cashing in China Daily, August 28, 2007. Xiao Fan has twice given birth to a child she will not raise. That is because the 32-year–old is a surrogate mother who gives birth on behalf of other couples for cash. While in some countries surrogacy is common practice, authorities in China frown upon it, although little is done to stop it. It is women like Xiao (not her real name) and an unknown number of brokers, agencies and other middlemen who help keep this “industry” alive, largely because of loopholes in the legal system and considerable demand from infertile couples in desperate need of a child. Read more in China Daily
  • Surrogates, families find state eases way /a> Arkansas Democrat Gazette, August 5, 2007. Arkansas laws controlling surrogacy arrangements are seen as among the most favorable in the USA, making the state attractive to hopeful parents. There is a quiet but thriving network of Arkansas women who have been carrying babies for couples from all over the country and Europe, where surrogacy is illegal. Read more at the Arkansas Democrat Gazette
  • A new generation of kids asks, ‘Where did I come from?’ The Miami Herald, May 21, 2007. One is Mom: Carrie Carpenter, the white-haired, gentle woman who gave birth to the beautiful, blue-eyed fraternal twins when she was 47. The other is the woman they call their Egg Mom: Lorraine Wilde, the tall, brainy college teacher who was once a strapped grad student convinced her smart, healthy genes had hit a dead end. The two women never met at the fertility clinic where Carrie received Lorraine's eggs. There, in an industry that depends on donated egg and sperm, the watchword is “anonymous.” Read more at The Miami Herald
  • The Business of In Vitro Fertilization WCAV, Charlottesville, Virginia, May 18, 2007. With a click of a mouse, you can find your perfect match, the egg donor who has all the qualities you want passed to your child. Fertility clinics across the country have taken notice of what traits are appealing to a couple ready to get pregnant. &ldquoThe number one thing that the majority of our couples say is healthy. The second thing is intelligence,” said Christie Aderholt, egg donor nurse coordinator at Martha Jefferson Hospital. Read more at WCAV
  • Ruling alters idea of mother the Baltimore Sun, May 17, 2007. Md. high court finds paternity laws must apply equally to men and women

    A baby conceived from an egg donated by one woman and implanted in another may have no mother at all under Maryland law, the state's highest court ruled yesterday. Issued more than four years after the matter was brought to the Court of Appeals, the 4—3 opinion creates blank spaces under “mother” in the birth certificates of twins born in 2001 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. The man who arranged for the children to be born from his sperm and donated eggs, and the woman with whom he arranged to carry them, brought the case. The two wanted it made clear that she had no legal claims or responsibility for the children. Read more at the Baltimore Sun
  • U.K. gays go stateside for in vitro babies The Advocate (Los Angeles, CA), March 28, 2007. In the United Kingdom it's illegal to pay a surrogate mother or an egg donor. But for about $65,000, gay British couples can create a baby–and designate its sex–in an American in vitro fertilization program for two-father families. Nearly 20 male couples from the United Kingdom have signed up for the Fertility Institute's program, in which they purchase a university student's eggs, which are then implanted in a paid surrogate, who bears the child.

    With offices in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and another planned in New York City, the Fertility Institute is one of the world's largest providers of fertility services to gay people. Of the $65,000 the clinic charges the couple, about $25,000 to $35,000 goes to the surrogate mother. Read more at The Advocate
  • Egg donor ads a last hope after cancer cure West Australian Newspapers, March 26, 2007. Natalie Dowd's desperate 11–year quest to have children after ovarian cancer has led her to advertise for an egg donor in what she sees as a final attempt to fulfil her dream. The 32-year-old fit and healthy Kalgoorlie woman was shocked when diagnosed at 21 after an internal examination and routine Pap smear. She had surgery within days and while doctors avoided a hysterectomy, much of her ovaries was removed and her hopes of falling pregnant lay with in-vitro fertilisation treatment.

    But after countless attempts over seven years that cost her and husband Brad thousands of dollars, the couple have resorted to advertising for an egg donor after being on the waiting list for three years. They first advertised in The West Australian on Saturday, March 17, in a final attempt to raise a family. The couple are looking for a woman under 35 who is prepared to give them a “selfless gift” and help them start their own family, a dream since they married in 2000. Read more at West Australian Newspapers
  • Paralyzed men can father children with doctors' help Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, March 25, 2007. In the weeks following the car accident that left him paralyzed below the waist, Geoff Luther was haunted by worries that he'd lost the chance to be a father. “It was some of the stuff I was thinking about the most,” said Luther. “What about having children? What about getting married? Can you naturally conceive a family?”

    His questions are shared by thousands of young men each year who suffer paralyzing spinal injuries. But many may give up hope - or undergo unnecessary, invasive procedures - because their doctors don't know about simple ways to help them. Read more at Casa Grande Valley Newspapers
  • Bundle of hope for surrogate mother, US couple Ahmedabad Newsline/ExpressIndia, February 25, 2007. A woman from Kolkata gave birth to a healthy baby boy on February 2 in Anand, acting as a surrogate mother for a US-based South Korean couple. While this may be another illustration of the booming surrogacy trade in Gujarat, for the Kolkata woman, it was a means to fund her ailing son’s treatment.

    To raise money for her son who is suffering from a complicated cardiac problem, the desperate mother from Kolkata came to Anand last year, looking to become a surrogate mother, as she had heard that she could earn a large amount of money through this. She met Dr Nayana Patel from the Akanksha Infertility Clinic in Anand, who in turn introduced her to an American couple, Thomas and Karen Kim. Karen, who suffers from a uterine problem, could not conceive and had flown down to Anand to meet Dr Patel. Read more at the Ahmedabad Newsline
  • Arkansas Woman Scammed By Surrogate Mother KTHV Little Rock, February 21, 2007. “Early on, she was just certain with no she wasn't talking to anyone else, I was the one, she wanted me to raise her baby,” Chrissy Thompson recalls. “And I just thought, oh my goodness this is a dream come true.” However, Thompson's attempt to adopt a child soon turned into a nightmare. Through a message board for surrogate moms, a Wisconsin woman willing to give Thompson the child she was bearing contacted her. It wasn't long before the woman we'll call “Melissa” began asking for money. Read more at KTHV Little Rock
  • Medical morality: Doctors are letting their conscience dictate your treatment Chicago Sun-Times, February 8, 2007. It's one of the thorniest questions in medicine today: Is it OK for health care workers to opt out of medical procedures they oppose on moral or religious grounds? Consider these cases from recent headlines: Five Illinois pharmacists are disciplined after refusing to dispense Plan B morning-after pills; A California fertility clinic refuses to help a gay woman get pregnant; A Chicago ambulance company fires an emergency medical technician for refusing to help drive a woman to an abortion clinic; And now a University of Chicago study has found that large numbers of doctors would allow their moral beliefs to affect how they practice medicine. Read more at the Chicago Sun Times
  • Treating Infertility ABC 7 Chicago, February 7, 2007. Modern science is helping a lot of couples get pregnant. But powerful drugs and advanced tools may not be enough. Some women are now turning to alternative treatments. Hormone shots. In vitro fertilization. They're fertility treatments many people probably recognize. How about yoga., diet or acupuncture? In the high–tech world of infertility, these simple, low–tech complementary therapies are gaining ground. Some infertility clinics are not only recommending alternative treatments, they've actually started offering them. Read more at Chicago ABC 7
  • Women put pregnancy hopes on ice Kansas City Star, Janaury 20, 2007. Kimberly Cook dreamed of having a family someday, with lots of kids running around and a husband to help her raise them. But like many career-minded women, her job became the top priority, and the man who would share a life with her never came along. Now, at age 37, Cook has placed her hopes in science. Next week, at the start of her menstrual cycle, she will go to a fertility clinic in Charlotte for a series of shots and pills designed to stimulate the production of eggs in her aging ovaries. If she is lucky, doctors will be able to extract at least a dozen healthy eggs that will be kept frozen until she is ready to use them. Read more at the Kansas City Star
  • A Global Guide to Baby Making Hamilton Spectator, December 23, 2006. IVF was originally intended to allow heterosexual couples to bypass problems with fallopian tubes or sperm by introducing eggs and sperm to each other in a petri dish. But demand has mushroomed among those with other medical problems as well as the single and gay. They need people to supply them with sperm, eggs and sometimes wombs; and the services of clinics who put the lot together. Discerning baby-shoppers assemble inputs from around the world -- sperm from Denmark, an egg from Russia, a surrogate mother from California -- to ensure that biology, for them, need not mean destiny. Some even switch countries midway through treatment, starting in Britain, say, and travelling to Russia, Spain or America at a crucial stage in the proceedings. Read more at the Hamilton Spectator
  • Critic Troubled by New Fertility Panel Globe and Mail, December 22, 2006. The Canadian government announced on the eve of the holiday weekend it has appointed a new body that could have a major impact on the way babies are made in fertility clinics and the future of stem-cell research. However, critics are troubled that the board does not appear to include any stem-cell scientists or fertility experts. “They could steer this all in a very conservative way, and maybe that's what the federal government wants,” said Michael Rudnicki, scientific director of Canada's Stem Cell Network. Read more at the Globe and Mail
  • Platinum coils boost infertility treatment Platinum Today, November 29 2006. A new method using platinum coils to help infertile couples conceive has been developed by scientists and presented at the Radiological Society of North America. Researchers in Germany have found that using a platinum coil together with a small amount of a sclerosing agent can provide a non-invasive approach to helping male infertility. Read more at Platinum Today
  • Sperm Banks Unpopular With Patients -- Researchers Investigate Why Science Daily, October 6, 2006. Sperm banks are unpopular, even with patients suffering from cancer and facing treatments that may make them infertile. A new study published in a recent issue of the scientific journal Human Reproduction highlights the need to improve doctor-patient communication about the benefits of sperm banking, and the need for accurate and personalized information about the high risk of infertility associated with treatment for testicular cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma. Read more at Science Daily
  • Fertility Wisdom Common Ground, October 1, 2006. Dr Angela Wu explains eastern approaches to fertility, including eastern herbal treatement, accupuncture, feng shui and other practices.
  • Study compares preferences among users for methods of delivery for fertility medicines PR Newswire, September 25, 2006. The PR Newswire piece cites a just published study in the journal, Current Medical Research and Opinion, demonstrating preference of the “pen” method over ampules, vials, or syringes.
  • OC Woman Gives Birth to Her Daughter's Baby, Orange County Register, September 24, 2006. Ruby Tejwani 54, decided to serve as surrogate mother for her daughter Sapna Singh and her son-in-law, Sonny, after the couple suffered four miscarriages. Her daughter suffers from Lupus.
  • IVF Twins may soon be a thing of the past, MedIndia, September 19, 2006: Soon there may be a ban on having twins through IVF treatment because intensive care units are being swamped by the many newborns.
  • Infertility an issue in overweight men, Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2006: Should a woman be allowed to sell her eggs? The question had never triggered much debate in the private world of fertility medicine, where Ivy League women can earn tens of thousands of dollars per “donation.” But it seems everything about stem cell research is political.
  • Infertility conference offers women support, Nashville Tennessean, September 12, 2006: Studies of women struggling to have a baby show they're just as depressed as women dealing with cancer, AIDS or heart disease. Infertility is that severe a blow to their psyches. It affects virtually every aspect of their lives, from their relationships with their partners, friends and family to their financial stability. Yet “the vast majority of patients in this country report they get no emotional support at all,” said Alice Domar, author of Conquering Infertility. “We have to consider stress as a factor.”
  • Infertility an issue in overweight men, The Australian (News Corp.), September 9, 2006: New research in the journal Epidemiology this week shows that for every nine extra kilos of body weight, a man's chances of experiencing infertility are increased by around 10 per cent.
  • Surrogacy deal lands baby's fate in a complex court case, Salt Lake City Tribune, September 6, 2006: Tug of war: Biological parents want custody; child lives with couple who hope to adopt him.
  • Creative financing plans aimed at steep infertility treatment costs, Pioneer Press (Twin Cities), September 3, 2006: Many physicians have skirted traditional medical conventions and begun offering everything from creative financing programs to arrangements that resemble infertility insurance.
  • FDA to take a harder look at custom blending of drugs, Boston Globe, August 29, 2006: Blended therapies are sometimes used, especially in hormonal replacement, in fertility therapy.
  • Fibroid Removal Enhances Female Fertility, News-Medical.net, August 24, 2006: This article expands on an article from the Virginian-Pilot (Hampton) offering medical resarch in addition to narrative on the benefits of fibroid removal to female fertility.
  • Non-Surgical Infertility Treatment Comes to Arizona, Yahoo News, August 21, 2006: A new infertility treatment, shown to be effective without drugs or surgery, is now available in Arizona. The therapy, known as the Wurn Technique®, is a hands-on physical therapy treatment that feels similar to massage.
  • Double Take over Surrogate Triplets, National Post, Canada, August 12, 2006: After five years of trying to conceive, Ms. Goldstein, 35, found a surrogate mother willing to carry her embryos. Then she got pregnant herself.
  • Does everybody have the right to have a baby? And who should pay when nature alone doesn't work?, Ventura County Reporter, August 10, 2006: Describes the refusal of a fertility practice to treat a lesbian, and the emerging legal and ethical questions that surround such fertility questions in an environment of changing legal righrs for gays and lesbians.
  • Single and Wanting Children, Some Men Seek ‘Gestational Carriers”, ABC News, August 3, 2006. David is a successful and single 51-year-old attorney. He is among a growing number of single men who, as they near their 40s or even 50s, are determined to have children — even if they have not yet found their ideal life partner.
  • RESOLVE National Survey Finds Employers Covering Infertility Treatment Experience No Significant Increase in Cost, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, July 20, 2006, Ninety-one percent of employers who provide infertility coverage for their employees say they have not experienced an increase in their medical costs as a result of providing coverage for infertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization, according to a survey of more than 900 employers. Read More Here
  • Surrogates help couples build dream of a family, Fort Wayne News, July 18, 2006), The three women who picnicked together on a recent Saturday all need each other to a create a single baby. Katy Melo, 31, from Houston, has the genetic DNA - her unfertilized egg. Rhonda LeAnn Dixon, 30, from Salina, Kan., has offered her womb. And Sherri Lewis, 42, of Madisonville, Ky., yearns to a be mother and has spent more than $175,000 chasing that dream. Her husband's sperm will fertilize Melo's eggs.
  • Infertility Treatment: OK to Delay? WebMD, July 13, 2006: May healthy fertile couples require more time than they expect to concieve.
  • The Waiting Game - Part 3 WBKO (Fox, Bowling Green, KY) July 13, 2006, info on IVF
  • Major implications of ‘embryo’ case Irish Health, July 12, 2006: Legal issues surrounding frozen embryos
  • Men Should Plan on Parenthood by 40, New Research Reveals a reveiw of recent studies: the Guardian (UK), May 2, 2006
  • Infertility treatment's high price tag prompts doctors to deliver new financing options: St Louis Business Journal, November 25, 2005