The Lancet: Low-cost in-vitro fertilisation as reproductive justice: reframing infertility care in global health

In a new piece for The Lancet, Health Equality Foundation Founder Baroness Geeta Nargund, together with Willem Ombelet and Jonathan Van Blerkom, argues for low-cost IVF as a matter of reproductive justice.

The authors highlight that global access to IVF remains profoundly unequal, with current models shaped by high-income country paradigms that are technologically intensive, costly and increasingly market-driven. This leaves services confined largely to private, urban clinics and out of reach for the majority who could benefit, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

They set out how simplified laboratory techniques, mild and rational stimulation protocols, and evidence-based clinical pathways can substantially reduce the cost of IVF without compromising safety, and argue this approach is compatible with rigorous regulation and ethical oversight.

The piece calls on international organisations, donors and global health institutions to invest in low-cost IVF research, pilot programmes and capacity building, arguing that infertility care should be integrated into global sexual and reproductive health strategies rather than treated as elective or non-essential.