‘So when? When are your children due?” – A difficult question for many couples. Also in Switzerland. There are many possible reasons for getting pregnant.
For one thing, many are a little older today than they were a few decades ago, before trying to have children. In addition, researchers have been observing declining sperm quality in the western world for several years.
Advances in Reproductive Medicine
In 2018, Britain’s Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby”, turned 40. A lot has changed since she was born: “Back then, the success rate of an unnatural pregnancy was between two and three percent,” says Brigitte Leeners, Director of the Reproductive Endocrinology Clinic at University Hospital in Zurich. “It’s around 40 percent today.” Good news for couples wishing to have children.
However, many people who want to get pregnant, for example through IVF, have a long and costly road ahead. How are those affected? Who has access to reproductive medicine and who does not? And why are some researchers worried about sperm quality? All this in the final episode, “Perspective.”