
BEIJING — For rich and single Chinese women who want it all, America is there to help.
The Beijing-based website Tencent Finance reports that U.S. fertility clinics are increasingly catering to single Chinese women who want to have a child on their own. Annie Liu, a successful high-end real estate dealer in New York, saw a new business opportunity that could cater to some of her clients — and founded Global Fertility Genetics (GFG), a clinic specialized in assisted-fertility services for visiting Chinese women.
"My years of contact with Chinese customers allowed me to understand that cross-border healthcare has tremendous potential," Liu said, speaking to Tencent Finance from her Manhattan clinic. "In particular, I saw egg freezing and in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a big market opportunity for high-end clients because these services are strictly controlled in China."
In China, birth control and fertility treatment are in the hands of the authorities, even after the government loosened the notorious "One-Child policy" over a year ago. Reproductive technologies are also forbidden to single women.
One single woman, who works in finance, recently wrote anonymously to a local newspaper. "I froze my eggs two years ago in California when I was 32, through an introduction of a college friend there. After that, several of my friends have followed suit," she wrote.
The woman pointed out that over the past two years, the situation for women who resort to reproductive services has improved. There are now even fertility preparation centers in China which link with American clinics. Though single mothers are still badly regarded in Chinese society, certain women say they do not want to forego having a child just because they aren't married. "I froze my eggs last year," a female real estate executive told Tencent Finance. "And now I am looking through the sperm bank for a suitable American candidate so I can have my baby."
As Tencent Finance reports, egg freezing is an emerging business in many parts of the world. For a Chinese woman who undergoes an egg-freezing cycle in America, the costs are estimated to be around $20,000, which covers all consultations, monitoring, medications and egg freezing.