Could We Extend Female Fertility?

It would be pretty monumental for society -- and also dangerous, of course -- if we could. Some people are working on this.

The old “biological clock” concept has many implications downstream of it, including:

• Female comparison and Instagram

• Women settling so they can get babies

• The expansion of IVF and egg freezing

• Men and the whole “younger model” thing

• People think they’re in “a race” instead of living their own lives and finding quality people to inhabit it

With all the stuff about fertility rate and no one seemingly going on dates anymore, this stuff has risen to the foreground a little bit. I say “a little bit” because most people end up finding someone they like or love, or finding a random one-off, and having the kid or two they desire. Some get more; some get less. I do generally believe we end up in specific situations based on luck, chance, and factors tied to our own agency. Them’s the ways of the world. It didn’t seem to work out biologically for my wife and I, so we’re on another journey.

Until very recently, the “answer” to extending female fertility seemed to be “freeze your eggs,” as 60 Minutes is now doing features on:

But every year, the fertility science gets slightly more advanced. One thing, that I believe is getting worked on mostly in Japan,