Why So Many Women Travel to Denmark for Fertility Treatments

Holly Ryan knows the biological father of her children has two sisters, is a Coldplay fan, and doesn’t like eating chicken in pasta dishes. She knows his mother is a nurse and his father is a policeman, and that his aunt has green eyes and curly hair. She even has a photo of him as a child, and an audio recording of his voice. But Ryan, 41, doesn’t know his name and has never met him. More than six years ago, she decided she wanted to start a family. “Once you commit to trying to get pregnant, it becomes a kind of obsession,” says Ryan, the director of a talent agency for TV directors, producers and editors. “As a single, gay woman, I knew in order to get from A to B, I had to be strategic about the quickest and least murky route, which I concluded was online shopping for a sperm donor.” Like thousands of women in Europe each year, Ryan turned to Denmark. Today, the Nordic country of 5.7 million people has the greatest proportion of babies born through assisted reproductive technology (ART) — while approximately 1.7% of all infants born in the U.S. are conceived using ART, an estimated 8 to 10% of Danish babies are born thanks to these techniques — but it’s not just the residents who benefit from its treatment options, notably its booming sperm industry. With some of the world’s most liberal legislation on fertility treatment, as well as a less stigmatized culture around the procedures, Denmark has become an attract...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Denmark Source Type: news