A new report out of the United Kingdom (UK) has found that the number of single women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) has skyrocketed in recent years.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) released data showing that nearly 5,000 single women either had IVF or donor insemination in 2022, three times as many as in 2012 when 1,534 women did so. The bulk of the change is from female same-sex couples and single women choosing to be single mothers. A change in attitudes towards fertility treatments and single motherhood is also believed to be a contributing factor.
“The rise in the number of single patients having fertility treatment could be due to a reduction of social stigma and possible changes in priorities following the pandemic,” Clare Ettinghausen, director of strategy and corporate affairs at the HFEA, told the Telegraph. “We have seen a rise in the number of single patients having fertility treatment over several years and as more conversations about fertility and fertility treatment continue to take place in wider society, single patients may feel ready to explore their options in relation to reproductive healthcare.”
Egg freezing is one of the most popular treatments as well, with 89% of storage cycles between 2018 and 2022 occurring among single women.
Because these are women choosing to have children without a father in the picture, it means that they will be using ‘donor’ sperm. A legal loophole in the UK was recently discovered that allows sperm donors to circumvent UK law limiting sperm ‘donations’ to be kept to only 10 families. By exporting the sperm to other families around the world, sperm ‘donors’ can avoid the UK law. Donor-conceived people reacted with discomfort and expressions of feeling “mass-produced.” Many were concerned about having no clue of how many siblings they might potentially have.
READ: Nearly half of children conceived at Netherlands fertility clinic have over 25 siblings
“[T]he marketisation of the industry to create 17 children felt like something I had to deal with and process and think through,” Liam Renouf-Macnab told UK media, adding that the industry needs to be better regulated and monitored. “One thing I support is that donor-conceived people have the right to know. If the HFEA, at 18, contacted the people who are donor conceived to tell them, it would spur parents on to make sure they have those conversations early.”
Others have said they are worried they will accidentally commit incest due to the potential number of unknown siblings around the UK.
Donor-conceived children have also pointed out that they are being intentionally deprived of their family and their heritage. As one woman told the child advocacy group, Them Before Us, “I’m the child of a stranger, who altruistically sold me, his biological daughter, to a family he would never meet,” she said. “He signed away his rights to be a father to me, and my parents gladly bought the gift that would give them a child. They were ecstatically happy when my mother became pregnant, but no one considered how I would feel about the transaction that took place, how I would feel about having no right to a relationship with my biological father, no access to my paternal family, not even medical information.”
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