Disrupting the biological clock: Fertility benefits, egg freezing and proactive fertility management

Abstract

In the last decade, the IVF sector has witnessed a shift from so-called reactive IVF to a new model of proactive fertility care. Whereas IVF was traditionally developed to treat people who found they were unable to conceive, the indication for IVF has broadened significantly to include a much wider group of potential patients through a new focus on proactive treatment of future (in)fertilities. This shift combines a number of new trends pertaining to preservation, prediction, private equity and platformisation, all of which have gained influence in contemporary assisted reproduction. This article focuses on the emergence of company-sponsored fertility benefits, which combines each of these trends.Whereas fertility benefits-especially egg freezing insurance-have primarily been discussed in terms of women's empowerment or disenfranchisement, this article instead calls attention to the discursive, clinical and infrastructural shifts in contemporary assisted reproduction that have emerged with the rising popularity of these benefits. The analysis addresses these underdiscussed aspects of fertility benefits by focusing on the dynamics of demand, the shifts in the rationalisation of intensified treatment pathways in the face of new reimbursement practices, and the online, platform-based infrastructures that are built to provide these treatments. In doing so, it analyses how this remaking of fertility towards an ethos of proactive fertility management reflects broader capitalist tailwinds.

From God to Technology: Multiple Ontologies of Reproductive Time

“…Similar studies have also characterised the biological clock as regulating reproductive time through the ticking away of fertility (Beaujouan and Solaz, 2013;Friese et al, 2006) and the finite character of reproduction (Brown and Patrick, 2018;Martin, 2017). Scholars have also noted that ARTs, particularly egg freezing, are often framed as an effective strategy for 'stopping time' (Baldwin et al, 2019;Bozzaro, 2018) and 'freezing fertility' (van de Wiel, 2020Wiel, , 2022, as well as a fertility 'insurance' (Daly and Bewley, 2013;Martin, 2010) and an 'investment' (Waldby, 2015) to extend women's reproductive span.…”

“…Even though time is at the core of contemporary reconfigurations of reproduction, in-depth analyses of reproductive time are scarce. Recent scholarship has made important contributions to outline women's understandings and experiences of time in the context of reproduction (Baldwin et al, 2019;Brown and Patrick, 2018;Daly and Bewley, 2013;Martin, 2010;van de Wiel, 2022;Waldby, 2015;Yopo Díaz, 2021a), but there are few systematic theoretical reflections and empirical studies on reproductive time. Drawing on sociological, feminist and decolonial approaches to time, this article provides a novel approach to account for the contemporary transformations of reproduction by empirically addressing the multiple ontologies of reproductive time that shape women's childbearing experiences.…”