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The speculative turn in IVF: egg freezing and the financialization of fertility

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

van de Wiel, L 

Abstract

Although egg freezing has received much scholarly attention, the pivotal role of financialisation in the fertility (preservation) sector remains understudied. This article discusses how processes of financialisation have instigated a step-change in the organisation of contemporary US IVF and why egg freezing is at the heart of a wider consolidating trend in the sector. The financialisation of fertility, in this context, references the financial investments in a future in which ever more women freeze their eggs, the role of capital markets in establishing new clinical and commercial infrastructures through which egg freezing becomes accessible and the role of financial products in shaping both the stories and the streamlining of fertility treatments. Together, these developments signal a shift from reproduction to fertility in IVF, in which treatment is not aimed at having a child at present, but rather at the proactive management of a more speculative fertility throughout the life course.

Description

Keywords

egg freezing, fertility, IVF, financialization, cryopreservation, reproductive technologies

Journal Title

New Genetics and Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1463-6778
1469-9915

Volume Title

39

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (209829/Z/17/Z)
Alan Turing Institute (Unknown)
Alan Turing Institute