Close your eyes for a minute and picture a woman sitting at her doctor's office discussing the option of in vitro fertilization. What does the woman in your mental image look like? Is she an older woman who waited until her forties to try to conceive? Is she there with her husband or is she a single woman who wants to get in vitro because she doesn't have a partner but still wants a family?
Is there any chance that you pictured a young woman in a same-sex marriage who is at the doctor with her female partner? This isn't the typical in vitro fertilization candidate that comes to mind for most people but it's someone that you're likely to find in the waiting rooms of most fertility doctors. And recent research indicates that gay couples in same-sex marriage states are more likely than non-married gay couples to use IVF for pregnancy.
In 2004, the state of Massachusetts legalized gay marriage. Since that time, there has been a marked increase in the number of same-sex couples who are seeking out a doctor for in vitro fertilization. One doctor says that there is approximately a fifty percent increase in these types of patients each year. He suspects that a main reason for this is that assisted reproductive methods can assist these couples in having children which are biologically related to them.
Learn more about the issue here.
Question of the Day: Will you share your description of the IVF patient you pictured in the above scenario?
