Living in Extrauterine Times
Surprising Fertility Market Facts PLUS horny groceries, a swimsuit contest + more!
“Extrauterine children” have entered the chat. Margaret Atwood, you’ve got nothing on Tom Parker.
What is the U.S. Fertility market really like?
Growing (Fast) & Affluent
Up 7.7M US women and up to 15% of heterosexual couples struggle with fertility.
Today, about 10% of women use these services. IVF is just 2% of all fertility services and 1.1% of births.
Yet, 42% of US adults have or know someone who’s used fertility treatments, up nearly 25% in 5 years (2018-2023).
More money, more fertility treatments: 59% of upper income people“have used fertility services or know people who have” along with 45% of middle income.
But one source predicts these services are projected to grow by approximately 10% annually through 2025.
(FWIW Egg freezing is the real cash cow here. The “proactive fertility business” is projected to be worth $680M in 2025, up from $472M in 2020. Egg freezing is currently the fastest growing fertility treatment. )
It’s a big, quiet (and influential) market. Blowback feels assured. I heard one investor presentation state infertility is in the top 4 most traumatic events in women’s lives, near losing a child and being victims of violent crimes.
Access was already an issue
U.S. access was already below many developed countries, because money.
Example: IVF in Israel is 100% covered for any woman up to age 45, no lifestyle questions (marriage, sexual orientation) asked.
Some sort of insurance coverage is required in 19 states, but even then, it’s expensive. Many full coverage plans require addendums.
Republican women are more likely than Republican men to support insurance covering fertility treatments (60% vs. 49%). Again, blowback feels likely.
Many companies are filling the gap—but the VCs won’t care for increased insurance premiums cutting into profit margins, Judges!
Until Alabama, the profits looked limitless. Here’s what breathless U.S. VC had to say: “The $8 billion global fertility services industry is rich in innovation and growth, providing a wealth of value creation opportunities for M&A investors… (with) recession-resistance.” It goes on to tease, “What makes IVF so exciting and attractive for investors..”
In 2023, Forbes estimated “global fertility tourism market” was already expected to grow at 30% by 2030. More jobs overseas!
God, Money & Lawyers
The root of the Alabama case was a matter of boosting punitive damages, when a patient (??!?!) destroyed some frozen embryos at a clinic. A lawsuit ensued due to lack of security measures at the facility.
However, this decision and others like it could make IVF very costly—and multiple pregnancies rather mandatory.
Would people be legally required to store these embryos in perpetuity?
To implant them at some point regardless?
Who gets sued in a power outage or freezer malfunction? Because we’ve seen these vigilante litigation possibilities open up in places like Texas.
It’s really just beginning: Right now, 125 Republicans are pushing a bill in Congress known as the Life at Conception Act. It defines a “human being” to “include each member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization or cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”
It also provide equal protection under the 14th Amendment “for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.”
Anyone else suspect a frozen egg will be a preborn human person, but sperm won’t be?
The Religious Response
Amongst other brimstone bits, the court’s chief justice Tom Parker, wrote this in his decision: “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”
But what about how that life is created? The religious community seems split. And not surprisingly, personal experience seems to be a factor.
Opposed: Kristan Hawkins (not a typo), Students for Life president, says IVF “is literally a business model built on disposable children and treating children as commodities.”
Apparently, there is a growing number of Gen Z evangelicals opposed to hormonal birth control as an extension of “the broad ways technology has infiltrated their lives.”
Catholicism “forbids” IVF and Pope Francis recently equated surrogacy with trafficking.
Mixed: Joseph Meaney, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center president explained Catholicism’s stance on it, as well as TMI-ing by telling the NYT’s his fam had some assistance in the form of scar tissue breakup and removal. He added: “Assisting means there has to be sex,” he said. “Replacing means there is no sexual act taking place.”
Pro: Many other abortion opponents and religious folk are pro-IVF, because the more children born, the better. See Alabama Republicans falling over themselves trying to make exceptions for IVF as clinic support immediately shut down.
A take from one evangelical Alabama woman seeking IVF for the 2nd time:
It’s interesting watching the race to create moral exceptions for IVF, although exceptions for abortion in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother’s life and future fertility have not been as forthcoming.
Taking a moment to salute Brandy Bottone, the woman who rightfully fought for carpool rights with her fetus as a passenger, according to TX law.
As Always, a “Female” Problem
While plenty of couples can’t conceive due to male issues, this is a “woman” problem. Doing IVF research, fertility issues are always squarely female though most people pursuing it are part of a heterosexual couple. And likely the law will rain down on women and eggs, not sperm. And yet, infertility (and thus, fertility services) is also a guy thing.
Around 30% of fertility problems originate in the man.
The Business of Female Children
The scorching-hot NYT piece about “too big to walk away” kiddie IG accounts, sexual predators and moms has a comments section worth reading. Warning: you’ll want to log off social media forever. BTW fastest growing influencer demo is kids under 10 years old.
Moms selling used leotards to men and IG knowingly profiting off low-key Only Fans subscriptions to a rabid and open male fan base. It is disturbing to say the least.
These “described” photos were really effective but the men’s comments are incredible considering IG shadow-bans breast cancer content.
Another throwback campaign: SKIMS swim
The swimsuit contest motif was fun - but no one looked like they were having much of it. Could it be the Kardashians’ subtle commentary on the labor of beauty culture? Yeah, nah.
The comments section shows a major parasocial relationship between KIM aka Kimberly aka the underpaid Kardashian social media manager and their followers.
Again, the comments are a sociological funhouse. One highlight: a man called out a lack of body representation and women were clapping back HARD on him.
One thing our divided nation agrees on: Love is Blind
Season 6 has 11.2x the average US TV audience. It outperforms 97.8% of all reality TV.
Audience is global, but there are but 3 spin offs: Brazil, Japan and Sweden.
And in a week when media was gutted, Vulture is making lemonade with a “pop-up” newsletter the Love is Blind Club.
Horny Groceries, Continued
Pickles are GenZ’s avocados and Horny Groceries are here as a trend.
Millennial blanding is moving into AARP status as the rather chaste Gen Z hornifies (for the camera, at least) branding. Yes, the Good & Fat olive oil featured in one of our previous posts. We were here first!
Millennial blanding is moving into AARP status.
Even Velveeta is in on it:
Sexy Velveeta lip jewelry merch. What a world!