Graphic by Maya Uribe
By Alex Ramirez
In the past 50 years, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) have noticed a slow, steady decrease in fertility rates amongst the global population. In the past few years, WHO has declared that 1 in 6 (16.7%) people will become infertile within their lifetime, unable to bear children of their own without a form of medical intervention.
A rate that also has increased in recent years is that of same sex households which the United States Census Bureau noted made up 2.2% of all households in 2023. These households make up 1,311,000 homes which still excludes that of transgender couples, nonbinary couples, intersex couples and many more identities that fall under the umbrella of the LGBTQIA+ community that may face difficulties of having children of their own.
On a local scale, the total estimated population of Ventura County in 2023 is 829,590 people. By WHO’s calculations, that would result in almost 139,000 people dealing with infertility issues in their lifetime. This number is nearly incomprehensible to the average person, but to put things into perspective, this would result in almost three full days worth of Disneyland visitors.
While this information appears bleak at face value, medical science has come a long way in forms of cryogenic preservation of sperm and egg cells, in vitro fertilization and a newly explored frontier known as In Vitro Gametogenesis (IVG). In simple terms, IVG is the process of taking someone’s cells and turning them into a sperm or egg cell through a complicated laboratory procedure. In a more in depth explanation, skin or blood cells are taken and turned into induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) which is converted by introducing a set of genes that reverts a cell back to a baseline stem cell which is known as reprogramming. From this state as a stem cell, these iPSC’s may be then converted into a sperm or egg cell that is viable for conception.
This development in medical science has significant implications that could allow us as a species to allow those with fertility issues to bear children of their own, allow LGBTQ+ couples to bear children where otherwise impossible and ultimately combat infertility as a whole.
As of Feb. 2025 we have currently only successfully completed this process in rodents. However this first step of developing IVG is a major victory in the fight against infertility as well as regenerative medicine. There are no present human trials as medical researchers aim to refine and navigate the hurdles still faced in the process of IVG. However, Doctor Eli Adashi, who chaired a National Academy of Medicine on IVG, believes that, “It will be probably a good few years, if not a decade or two, before we get there.”
Fertility is a rising issue faced by the global population, but with IVG, everyone may get the chance to have children of their own regardless of their sex or gender. Although the end goal is a ways away, the future is approaching fast and in the next 50 years, infertility on a conceptual level may be eradicated entirely.
