I was asked by BioNews - the flagship publication from the Progress Education Trust (PET) - to review The Golden Egg, a podcast which looks at ProFaM , the controversial new venture that offers ovarian tissue freezing to postpone the menopause. It asks the question: how did we end up here? It examines the pushing of boundaries between scientific advances and the ethical questions they raise, and the redefining of boundaries of who can procreate and how.
Moreover, it observes that amongst all this boundary-pushing, a lot of people made a lot of money: from the birth of Louise Brown, the world's first baby born through IVF, in 1978 to a global industry expected to be worth $40bn by 2027.
It’s a really thought-provoking listen, and I’m delighted to have got the opportunity to express some frank and honest views in my review - from IVF add-ons to fertility MOTs and egg freezing, to the medicalisation of women’s bodies to fix societal problems (and lots of men getting very rich off the back of this).
Read the review
BioNews: Podcast Review - The Golden Egg
Listen to the podcast
You can listen for free online, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or Spotify.
More from this series
This podcast is part of Tortoise Media's Big Egg' series, a really brilliant investigation into the dark side of the fertility industry (full disclosure: I was interviewed for Egged On, a piece all about IVF add-on treatments). Tortoise is members-only, but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial for access.