Health & Wellness

High Costs for Fertility Treatment Push Americans Abroad for IVF Services

LJ Dawson / KFF Health News Aug 31, 2026 Despite Trump’s promises to make treatment more affordable, the overall costs for one IVF cycle in the U.S. remain in the tens of thousands of dollars. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Media

What’s Behind the ‘Baby Bust’ Panic?

Julie Hollar / FAIR May 4, 2026 News outlets are hiding the xenophobic assumptions and regressive gender ideals underlying pronatalist claims of a demographic “crisis.” Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Environment

Why 2% Is the Most Dangerous Number No One Is Talking About

Richard Heinberg / Resilience Sep 13, 2023 An alarming decades-long decline rate in male sperm count could lead to near-universal male sterility by 2060. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

Environment

What Lower Fertility Rates Mean for Climate Change

Carter Dillard and Phoebe Barnard Jun 5, 2023 Confronting how population growth contributes to the crisis could lead to necessary policy change. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

A Surrogate Mother’s Cautionary Tale

Julie Bindel / Truthdig Mar 6, 2019 Defenders of the practice of surrogacy contend that everyone benefits from it, but that’s not always the case. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

The Selling of Subordination: How the Female Body Is Reduced to Products

Julie Bindel / Truthdig Sep 16, 2016 Welcome to the marketplace built on women’s oppression, disposability, desperation and despair. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Give Us Your Fertile Years: Apple and Facebook Will Pay to Freeze Your Eggs

Peter Z. Scheer / Truthdig Oct 15, 2014 At the intersection of good intentions and just-plain-weird, two of the biggest tech companies are offering their female employees an unusual benefits package. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

FDA Tells Volunteer Sperm Donor to Zip It

Staff / Truthdig Dec 20, 2011 As of late last year, a Fremont, Calif., man had donated his sperm 328 times to would-be parents who found him on the Internet. The Food and Drug Administration has told the donor, whose self-described "service to help the community" has produced 14 children, to stop. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Sperm Bank Bans Redheads

Staff / Truthdig Sep 19, 2011 Cryos, an international network of sperm banks based in Denmark, is refusing donations from gingers, because, says director Ole Schou, there simply isn't demand outside of Ireland, where red hair sells "like hot cakes." The company is most interested in sperm from Indian donors and those with brown hair and eyes. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Lost Horizon’ for American Ovaries

Cherilyn Parsons / Truthdig Jul 29, 2011 Ann Patchett's sixth novel, "State of Wonder," poses a provocative question: If, ladies, you could preserve your fertility into your 50s, 60s or even later, would you? Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Presenting: Sperm in a Test Tube

Staff / Truthdig Mar 25, 2011 They've gone and done it, those crafty scientists: As reported by Nature (as in the publication), a team of Japanese researchers has successfully cultivated "fully developed sperm" from "immature mouse testicles." And they're not just showing off. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Million-Dollar Baby: How Much Would You Pay for a Baby If You Couldn’t Have One?

Staff / Truthdig Jul 27, 2009 Is there a fairer way to compensate surrogate mothers? Too often, surrogacy is about a wealthy couple hiring a poor woman to breed for them.Too often, surrogacy is about a wealthy couple hiring a poor woman to breed for them. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )