Aggregated News
COPENHAGEN - Couples wanting babies are criss-crossing the globe in search of treatment as infertility in the developed world looks set to double within a decade, scientists say.
Dutch women travel to Belgium for sperm donation because there is a shortage in their own country. Donated egg recipients cross the border because it is not allowed in Germany.
Lesbian couples travel from France to get treatment that is not available to them in their own country, while Italians are going abroad because their country has the strictest fertility law in Europe, according to Professor Guido Pennings of Ghent University in Belgium.
The cause is a combination of declining natural fertility, rapid scientific advances in treatment, and a mix of national regulations as countries struggle with the ethics of it all.
Fertility, science and law
Despite research showing that fertility declines in the 30s, women are delaying having children. Sexually transmitted diseases can cause infertility, and obesity, which is linked with difficulty ovulating, makes the problem worse.
About one in six couples suffer from a fertility problem.
"It looks as if...