卵子冷冻福利背后的惨淡真相

    我在湾区的三家生育诊所接受了治疗，这个过程持续了七年时间。在我40岁之前，每一次努力都以失败告终。营利性诊所兜售着做一名妈妈的感人承诺，结果却带来了一次次流产和毁灭性的、挥之不去的绝望，我又花了十年时间才完全恢复。不幸的是，我的经历并非个案。全世界每年约有150万人尝试IVF，其中有120万遭遇了失败。

    与其争论员工福利的优点，不如关注一下如何让医生、患者和服务提供商负起责任。他们的行为越来越不负责任或不道德，最终却往往由无知或天真的患者承担后果。

    在考虑这项新福利的时候，雇主们最好更严格地筛选生殖技术提供商，因为许多人打着科学发明的和潜在新市场的旗号，兜售生殖治疗技术，却忽视了最基本的医疗行为准则：不要对患者造成伤害。

    不幸的是，在硅谷乃至全世界抱有雄心壮志的年轻女性，都要接受一次深刻的生活教训；在生育选择方面，成功的机会非常渺茫。（财富中文网）

    本文作者帕米拉•马奥尼•提格蒂诺思来自风险资本与科技行业。她还撰写了一部获奖作品：《沉默的女生联谊会》（Silent Sorority）。她的作品曾发表于《纽约时报》与《郝芬顿邮报》。她的专栏文章“兜售生育的白日梦”（Selling the Fantasy of Fertility），获得美国全国女性政治党团会议（National Women’s Political Caucus）2014年媒体特殊贡献奖（Exceptional Merit in Media Awards，EMMA）提名。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    This venture spanned seven years with three Bay Area fertility clinics. Every effort, before I turned age 40, resulted in failure. The dazzling promise of motherhood sold by for-profit clinics led to miscarriages and devastating, prolonged despair, which took me another decade to fully reconcile. My experience, unfortunately, is far from unique. Around the world, an estimated 1.5 million each year attempt IVF and 1.2 million fail.

    Rather than debate the merits of employee perks, energy would be better directed at holding to account those doctors, clinics and service providers engaging in increasingly irresponsible or unethical behavior–often at the expense of uninformed or naïve customers.

    In the pursuit of new perks employers would do well to apply more scrutiny to reproductive technology vendors who, in the name of scientific invention and potential new business markets, push to sell treatments while losing sight of the most basic code of medical conduct: do no harm.

    Unfortunately many ambitious young women on Silicon Valley campuses and in workplaces around the world are going to learn a hard life lesson; when it comes to fertility options, the odds are rarely stacked in their favor.

    Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos works in the venture capital and tech sectors. She is also the author of the award-winning book, Silent Sorority. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and Huffington Post. Her op-ed, “Selling the Fantasy of Fertility,” was nominated for a 2014 Exceptional Merit in Media Awards (EMMA) by the National Women’s Political Caucus.