Originally published July 21 2005
Scientists predict infertility will double within the decade; couples travel world in search of fertility help
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Scientists at Sheffield University in England are predicting that world levels of infertility will double within the decade, and many European couples have responded by traveling to foreign countries to seek treatment and bypass their native countries' fertility issues, reports The Globe and Mail.
Copenhagen --- Couples wanting babies are crisscrossing the globe in search of treatment as infertility in the developed world looks set to double within a decade, scientists say.
Dutch women travel to Belgium for sperm donation because there is a shortage in their own country.
Donated egg recipients cross the border because it is not allowed in Germany.
Lesbian couples travel from France to get treatment that is not available to them there, while Italians are going abroad because their country has the strictest fertility law in Europe, according to Professor Guido Pennings of Ghent University in Belgium.
The cause is a combination of declining natural fertility, rapid scientific advances in treatment, and a mix of national regulations as countries struggle with the ethics of it all.
Despite research showing that fertility declines in the 30s, women are delaying having children.
"It looks as if the amount of infertility in the Western world could double in the next decade," Prof. Bill Ledger, a fertility expert at Sheffield University in England, told a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology on Monday.
Thousands of patients are travelling abroad seeking either cheaper or quicker fertility treatments, or procedures not available in their own country, Prof. Pennings said in an interview.
Belgium, Switzerland and Spain are among the more popular European nations for reproductive tourism.
It is all included in the price.
"If you go on the Internet and look for egg donation, you will find a number of clinics all over the world which offer services.
A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates fertility treatment in Britain, advised a cautious approach to reproductive tourism.
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