Main Takeaways
- First IVF baby Louise Joy Brown joined the More Joy Campaign in Mexico on her birthday to raise awareness about global fertility decline
- Fertility rates in Latin America are declining, with Mexico and Argentina’s fertility rates dropping dramatically since the 1970s.
- Limited access to IVF in Latin America hampers options for patients and highlights significant barriers to fertility care
The More Joy campaign travelled to South America where More Joy Ambassador and first IVF baby Louise Joy Brown was the featured speaker at the 76th meeting of the Mexican Association for Reproductive Medicine (AMMR). Brown shared her mother’s IVF journey and highlighted the importance of more affordable access to IVF as global fertility rates are on the decline and access to IVF in Latin America remains limited.
Mexico’s fertility rate decreased from 7 to 1.9 children per family since the 1970’s and Argentina’s Buenos Aires faces extreme fertility decline, reporting a critical low of 0.9 children per family, far below the needed population replacement rate. The situation in the rest of the countries in the Latin American region is similar, with Chile and Colombia also showing record declining fertility rates.
“More Joy has been reaching out to policymakers about the urgent need to make fertility care more affordable, accessible, and equitable,” said IFFS President Marcos Horton. “And now we are working on a major initiative to involve corporations.”
A growing number of major companies support employees with IVF access and/or flexible work policies, yet adoption of family-friendly benefits remains limited. IFFS is hoping to change that.
“Back when my mum went through it, she couldn’t tell anybody because it was sort of a secret,” explained Louise. “Before I was born, there was a bomb scare because the press wanted to get Mum outside just to get pictures of her.” Louise
also explained that her mother had to travel 400-mile round trip distances for the IVF treatment, which was being pioneered at the time. Economic and geographic barriers continue for too many people seeking fertility care today.
To explore other reasons behind falling fertility rates, IFFS is planning a global survey to investigate why people are choosing not to have children, including housing and childcare affordability, and climate change.
Learn more about Louise
story in “Louise Brown: My Life as the World’s First Test Tube Baby.”
Learn more about More Joy at https://www.iffsreproduction.org/morejoy/