Now that s due and I had awkwardly agreed to become potential future co parents by putting embryos on ice, the question was where we would be putting these embryos. Where should I go to freeze? In New York It's a paradox of choice. Within ten miles of me, there were more than two dozen clinics. It felt paralyzed. This seemed like a big decision. I'd talked to so many women who would drain their savings accounts to walk away with nothing. How could I make sure that I was giving us the best chance for success As a woman in her mid thirties, I had long been swimming in targeted content for fertility clinics.

Now that s due and I had awkwardly agreed to become potential future co parents by putting embryos on ice, the question was where we would be putting these embryos. Where should I go to freeze? In New York It's a paradox of choice. Within ten miles of me, there were more than two dozen clinics. It felt paralyzed. This seemed like a big decision. I'd talked to so many women who would drain their savings accounts to walk away with nothing. How could I make sure that I was giving us the best chance for success As a woman in her mid thirties, I had long been swimming in targeted content for fertility clinics.

Meet Modern fertility, the test that teaches you about your eggs and fertility hormones. Today, one in six couples has trouble conceiving. So we built an easy way to test fertility hormones before you're ready for kids.

Meet Modern fertility, the test that teaches you about your eggs and fertility hormones. Today, one in six couples has trouble conceiving. So we built an easy way to test fertility hormones before you're ready for kids.

Progeny is a leading provider of fertility benefits.

Progeny is a leading provider of fertility benefits.

Our mission is to help people build their families, Introducing kind Body, a new generation of women's health and fertility care with a redesigned patient experience that's accessible and intuitive. This last one kind Body. It stood out to me. Kind Body came on my radar a couple of years ago when they opened a location in the Bay Area, where I was living at the time. I went to their opening party. There was this faux flower arch in the entryway and giant gold balloons that spelled out kind Body Champagne, of course, and there were a lot of women like me, thirties, professional made well jeans and black ankle boots. And I'll admit it, I wasn't just there as a reporter. This was right after that bad breakup I talked about in episode one. Fast forward a few years later, I'm now thinking seriously about freezing embryos, and I'm curious about kind Body. The company's pitch is that it's trying to make fertility more friendly, unaccessible, unaffordable. The fertility industry has a bad rap. For kind Body that presents an opportunity it stands out from its competitors. Venture capital and private equity has poured into this space in the last five years. Twenty twenty three was a record year for fertility VC deals. Kind Body was the largest of those deals. The strong celebrity investors like what Apatro and Gabrielle Union. It's raised more than three hundred million dollars and open thirty five clinics. But as I look closer, it seemed like Kindbody's rapid rise was also illuminating cracks in the system. I'm christ and v Brown, and this is misconception. When you walk into Chymebody's New York City flagship, it feels a bit like a high end salot. It's in a storefront on a trendy part of Fifth Avenue. There are plush couches with yellow throw pillows in artful disarray, chai ceilings with ornate columns, a display of vitamins topped with an overflowing floral arrangement.

Our mission is to help people build their families, Introducing kind Body, a new generation of women's health and fertility care with a redesigned patient experience that's accessible and intuitive. This last one kind Body. It stood out to me. Kind Body came on my radar a couple of years ago when they opened a location in the Bay Area, where I was living at the time. I went to their opening party. There was this faux flower arch in the entryway and giant gold balloons that spelled out kind Body Champagne, of course, and there were a lot of women like me, thirties, professional made well jeans and black ankle boots. And I'll admit it, I wasn't just there as a reporter. This was right after that bad breakup I talked about in episode one. Fast forward a few years later, I'm now thinking seriously about freezing embryos, and I'm curious about kind Body. The company's pitch is that it's trying to make fertility more friendly, unaccessible, unaffordable. The fertility industry has a bad rap. For kind Body that presents an opportunity it stands out from its competitors. Venture capital and private equity has poured into this space in the last five years. Twenty twenty three was a record year for fertility VC deals. Kind Body was the largest of those deals. The strong celebrity investors like what Apatro and Gabrielle Union. It's raised more than three hundred million dollars and open thirty five clinics. But as I look closer, it seemed like Kindbody's rapid rise was also illuminating cracks in the system. I'm christ and v Brown, and this is misconception. When you walk into Chymebody's New York City flagship, it feels a bit like a high end salot. It's in a storefront on a trendy part of Fifth Avenue. There are plush couches with yellow throw pillows in artful disarray, chai ceilings with ornate columns, a display of vitamins topped with an overflowing floral arrangement.

Hopefully it doesn't look like your typical doctor's office.

Hopefully it doesn't look like your typical doctor's office.

No doctor I have ever been to Kind Body's founding physician fahemos Asan gave me a tour. She told me that the aesthetics played directly into kind Bodies mission. It's hard to even compare a kind Body to me, which I've visited in episode two, met looked like a doctor's office.

No doctor I have ever been to Kind Body's founding physician fahemos Asan gave me a tour. She told me that the aesthetics played directly into kind Bodies mission. It's hard to even compare a kind Body to me, which I've visited in episode two, met looked like a doctor's office.

As you walk through intentionally, there's no white coats, there are no degrees on the walls, our clinics are really intentionally built to be a blank slate for our patients, and so we're here to be a partner in your journey, not that you're coming to our shrine.

As you walk through intentionally, there's no white coats, there are no degrees on the walls, our clinics are really intentionally built to be a blank slate for our patients, and so we're here to be a partner in your journey, not that you're coming to our shrine.

And this kind of visibility brings in business. The company even has a big yellow van that roams the streets of cities offering fertility testing for cheap or even free as a way to get women in the door. Accessibility is also key to kind Body strategy. The company pitches employers to offer fertility care as a benefit. In twenty twenty two, for example, they struck a big deal with Walmart while.

And this kind of visibility brings in business. The company even has a big yellow van that roams the streets of cities offering fertility testing for cheap or even free as a way to get women in the door. Accessibility is also key to kind Body strategy. The company pitches employers to offer fertility care as a benefit. In twenty twenty two, for example, they struck a big deal with Walmart while.

Mart employees more than two point two million workers, and is teaming up with the fertility startup kind Body to offer employees access to more than thirty fertility clinics and IVF labs across the US.

Mart employees more than two point two million workers, and is teaming up with the fertility startup kind Body to offer employees access to more than thirty fertility clinics and IVF labs across the US.

It's opening up a brand new facility in northwest Arkansas.

It's opening up a brand new facility in northwest Arkansas.

We say we want to do good by doing well, and so you do good by bringing down the cost of care to make it more affordable to more people. We want to democratize care. That's been our mission since the beginning.

We say we want to do good by doing well, and so you do good by bringing down the cost of care to make it more affordable to more people. We want to democratize care. That's been our mission since the beginning.

That's kind Body's founder and CEO, Gina Bartesi I told her that Kindbody had first caught my attention because of its big egg freezing push a few years ago.

That's kind Body's founder and CEO, Gina Bartesi I told her that Kindbody had first caught my attention because of its big egg freezing push a few years ago.

The place you start when you're building a fertility company, in my opinion, is you start with egg freezing because they have discretionary income. Those women that are thinking about egg frasing are not asking about success rates. The IVF cases come later.

The place you start when you're building a fertility company, in my opinion, is you start with egg freezing because they have discretionary income. Those women that are thinking about egg frasing are not asking about success rates. The IVF cases come later.

This strategy seems to be working for Kindbody. This May, it opened to clinic in the ritzy Newport Peach, California, and plans to open more in Charlotte, Miami, and San Diego before the end of the year. The company told me that since twenty twenty two, the number of new patient visits has increased by seventy five percent. It has also nearly doubled the number of employers who offer kind Body as a benefit. It expects to get forty five hundred women pregnant this year. They call the babies born at kind Body kind babies. In other words, at kind Body, business appears to be booming. Multiple clinics that I interviewed told me that this sort of growth and investment is good for patients. That cost savings and better quality care gets passed on to patients when clinics are able to expand into big nationwide clinic chains like kind Body, and at least on the surface, kind Body have had something very appealing to offer. Who doesn't want to feel like they're going to a spa appointment instead of the doctor. We'll be right back. After my initial fertility testing way back in episode one, I made an appointment at kind Body for a freezing consultation based on the state of my fertility. I wanted to know what to expect if I froze. My appointment coincidentally happened to be with Nicolenoys, who we heard from an episode one. She was the pioneering doctor who helped take egg freezing mainstream. She was working there at the time. Kind Body has a little calculator in its app which it says it built using clinical research. With my numbers, it estimated that I might need three or even four egg retrievals to get the desired twenty egg number. Kind Body, for the record, said the calculator was just meant to quote empower patients with information rather than offer a concrete clinical guidance. Nicole sounded more optimistic. She said two cycles was all I would likely need. I told her I would think about it. The next day I checked my inbox. There was a flurry of messages from kind Body. I'd been signed up for the start of my egg freezing journey. I had just nine simple steps to complete. There was an email about cost and another email asking if I had any questions. Then the next day a nurse called me. I told her I was confused why anyone was calling me at all, because, as I had told Nicole, I wasn't sure what I was going to do or whether I was going to do it with kind Body. Over the next few months, I got countless emails urging me to do things like join the summer freeze for twenty five percent off on the kind Body app, I could just add a seventy five hundred dollars egg freezing cycle to my shopping cart and check out like I was impulse buying a pair of very expensive shoes. It reminded me of this kind Body infosition I had watched a few weeks earlier.

This strategy seems to be working for Kindbody. This May, it opened to clinic in the ritzy Newport Peach, California, and plans to open more in Charlotte, Miami, and San Diego before the end of the year. The company told me that since twenty twenty two, the number of new patient visits has increased by seventy five percent. It has also nearly doubled the number of employers who offer kind Body as a benefit. It expects to get forty five hundred women pregnant this year. They call the babies born at kind Body kind babies. In other words, at kind Body, business appears to be booming. Multiple clinics that I interviewed told me that this sort of growth and investment is good for patients. That cost savings and better quality care gets passed on to patients when clinics are able to expand into big nationwide clinic chains like kind Body, and at least on the surface, kind Body have had something very appealing to offer. Who doesn't want to feel like they're going to a spa appointment instead of the doctor. We'll be right back. After my initial fertility testing way back in episode one, I made an appointment at kind Body for a freezing consultation based on the state of my fertility. I wanted to know what to expect if I froze. My appointment coincidentally happened to be with Nicolenoys, who we heard from an episode one. She was the pioneering doctor who helped take egg freezing mainstream. She was working there at the time. Kind Body has a little calculator in its app which it says it built using clinical research. With my numbers, it estimated that I might need three or even four egg retrievals to get the desired twenty egg number. Kind Body, for the record, said the calculator was just meant to quote empower patients with information rather than offer a concrete clinical guidance. Nicole sounded more optimistic. She said two cycles was all I would likely need. I told her I would think about it. The next day I checked my inbox. There was a flurry of messages from kind Body. I'd been signed up for the start of my egg freezing journey. I had just nine simple steps to complete. There was an email about cost and another email asking if I had any questions. Then the next day a nurse called me. I told her I was confused why anyone was calling me at all, because, as I had told Nicole, I wasn't sure what I was going to do or whether I was going to do it with kind Body. Over the next few months, I got countless emails urging me to do things like join the summer freeze for twenty five percent off on the kind Body app, I could just add a seventy five hundred dollars egg freezing cycle to my shopping cart and check out like I was impulse buying a pair of very expensive shoes. It reminded me of this kind Body infosition I had watched a few weeks earlier.

We want no regrets here.

We want no regrets here.

We can't go back in time.

We can't go back in time.

And we want to make sure that you have all options available to you.

And we want to make sure that you have all options available to you.

But the longer you wait to come in, so those options start to join.

But the longer you wait to come in, so those options start to join.

The kind Bodies. IVF prices range from about fourteen thousand dollars to sixteen thousand dollars excluding medication, and depending on location. It's New York. Prices were on par with what I saw at other clinics in the city, and all of those prices were higher than the average price for an IVF cycle in the US, which is about twelve thousand dollars according to Fertility IQ. I told Pasquale Patrizio about my experience a kind Body and ask him when he thought about it. He's the chief of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at the University of Miami, and he studied the effect of private funding on the industry.

The kind Bodies. IVF prices range from about fourteen thousand dollars to sixteen thousand dollars excluding medication, and depending on location. It's New York. Prices were on par with what I saw at other clinics in the city, and all of those prices were higher than the average price for an IVF cycle in the US, which is about twelve thousand dollars according to Fertility IQ. I told Pasquale Patrizio about my experience a kind Body and ask him when he thought about it. He's the chief of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at the University of Miami, and he studied the effect of private funding on the industry.

For me, what is really not correct, it's the pressure. The fact that the next day you already got an email and messages from the clinics. Okay, are you ready to start? Well, you already told them listen, I want to think about but now they are already contacting you within twenty four hours. That's already a pressure for you to do something that they start to put you in the regret that if you don't do it, you are really losing the opportunity out and you have now these guilty feelings, and so it's a kind of psychological maneuvering.

For me, what is really not correct, it's the pressure. The fact that the next day you already got an email and messages from the clinics. Okay, are you ready to start? Well, you already told them listen, I want to think about but now they are already contacting you within twenty four hours. That's already a pressure for you to do something that they start to put you in the regret that if you don't do it, you are really losing the opportunity out and you have now these guilty feelings, and so it's a kind of psychological maneuvering.

When I told kind Body about my experience, they said, the idea that it's pressuring patients is categorically false. While it does engage in marketing campaigns like seasonal promotions. Kind Body said, that's standard across the industry, and the right it is standard. Are talked about some of those practices. In an earlier episode Across the industry, Pasquali told me clinics are often under pressure or peace investors, so they push treatments on patients. He wasn't speaking specifically about kind Body. Big fertility clinic chains could in theory, save consumers money and make treatments more accessible by leveraging their market power and lobbying for policy change.

When I told kind Body about my experience, they said, the idea that it's pressuring patients is categorically false. While it does engage in marketing campaigns like seasonal promotions. Kind Body said, that's standard across the industry, and the right it is standard. Are talked about some of those practices. In an earlier episode Across the industry, Pasquali told me clinics are often under pressure or peace investors, so they push treatments on patients. He wasn't speaking specifically about kind Body. Big fertility clinic chains could in theory, save consumers money and make treatments more accessible by leveraging their market power and lobbying for policy change.

So theoretically, by doing more volume, you should also be able to offer less costly. You know, should be cheaper, should be more economical. But this cost potentially cost saving I so far, I've not been passed on to patients or to payers. If you are working in a state with the insurance that that are recovering.

So theoretically, by doing more volume, you should also be able to offer less costly. You know, should be cheaper, should be more economical. But this cost potentially cost saving I so far, I've not been passed on to patients or to payers. If you are working in a state with the insurance that that are recovering.

Actually, by my calculations, when you adjust for inflation and include things like the cost of medication. IVF has gotten more expensive in the US over the last few decades.

Actually, by my calculations, when you adjust for inflation and include things like the cost of medication. IVF has gotten more expensive in the US over the last few decades.

Not cheaper are we doing good for patients? Law is that the patient lost into these business transactions.

Not cheaper are we doing good for patients? Law is that the patient lost into these business transactions.

This tension between the bottom line and the patient. It's existed for a long time. It goes back to how IVF came up in America. Attempts to create special regulations for IVF have failed time after time, and a lot of that has to do with interference from the anti abortion movement. Around the same time IVF scientists were making big breakthroughs, the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade, which rebbed up anti abortion activism. These activists also opposed IVF, viewing the destruction of embryos in the course of IVF the same as abortion. Their growing political force made lawmakers hesitant to weigh in on IVF, even as countries like the UK were creating new regulatory agencies for it. It also led to a ban of federal embry or research funding. There's also not widespread health insurance and fertility insurers normally weigh in on the best treatments in IVF. Patients are mostly left to figure out for themselves whether they're doctor is telling them something they need is really something they need, or whether they're being upsold. All that means fertility medicine grew up as a business, a marketplace where clinics can charge people tens of thousands of dollars to start a family, and as the industry has rapidly expanded the scale of issues, it's grown too will be right back. Not long after I started reporting this podcast, my colleague Jackie Davelus, and I both started hearing from people that there were problems at kind Body that weren't quite as visible as what I had experienced.

This tension between the bottom line and the patient. It's existed for a long time. It goes back to how IVF came up in America. Attempts to create special regulations for IVF have failed time after time, and a lot of that has to do with interference from the anti abortion movement. Around the same time IVF scientists were making big breakthroughs, the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade, which rebbed up anti abortion activism. These activists also opposed IVF, viewing the destruction of embryos in the course of IVF the same as abortion. Their growing political force made lawmakers hesitant to weigh in on IVF, even as countries like the UK were creating new regulatory agencies for it. It also led to a ban of federal embry or research funding. There's also not widespread health insurance and fertility insurers normally weigh in on the best treatments in IVF. Patients are mostly left to figure out for themselves whether they're doctor is telling them something they need is really something they need, or whether they're being upsold. All that means fertility medicine grew up as a business, a marketplace where clinics can charge people tens of thousands of dollars to start a family, and as the industry has rapidly expanded the scale of issues, it's grown too will be right back. Not long after I started reporting this podcast, my colleague Jackie Davelus, and I both started hearing from people that there were problems at kind Body that weren't quite as visible as what I had experienced.

I had gotten a tip from a user on Reddit that was commenting on kind of their experience at the company. They were a former employee, and they basically told me you should really look into those laboratories where these IVF treatments are really happening.

I had gotten a tip from a user on Reddit that was commenting on kind of their experience at the company. They were a former employee, and they basically told me you should really look into those laboratories where these IVF treatments are really happening.

She found that there had been a handful of incidents, particularly after the acquisition of another fertility clinic chain.

She found that there had been a handful of incidents, particularly after the acquisition of another fertility clinic chain.

Embryos had been mishandled as a result of understaffing and inconsistent lab protocols. Three of these accidents occurred in Kindbody's Bryant Park lab in New York City, including one where a patient's last embryo was damaged after accidentally being left out in room temperature. Another incident occurred in a Kindbody clinic in Chicago, where staff couldn't find a patient's embryo.

Embryos had been mishandled as a result of understaffing and inconsistent lab protocols. Three of these accidents occurred in Kindbody's Bryant Park lab in New York City, including one where a patient's last embryo was damaged after accidentally being left out in room temperature. Another incident occurred in a Kindbody clinic in Chicago, where staff couldn't find a patient's embryo.

The patient wanted her embryo genetically tested, but staff couldn't find it when they looked where records indicated it should have been.

The patient wanted her embryo genetically tested, but staff couldn't find it when they looked where records indicated it should have been.

It was eventually found, but staff had to rifle through cride tanks to find it.

It was eventually found, but staff had to rifle through cride tanks to find it.

Kinbody told us that these incidents were a fraction of the more than seven thousand freezing and IVF procedures that they've handled. The company said its incident rate zero point two percent, on par with the rate found in a twenty eighteen study. They said they weren't understaffed, and they disputed that there was an escalation in lab issues as the company grew. Some of the employees I talked to actually said that even though Cobody's labs did face some issues, the equipment and standards at Combody were much better than in other clinics where they'd worked. Issues and accidents in the lab are by no means unique to any one clinic. They're happening across the industry. There have been other allegations of things going wrong, like a recent lawsuit that alleges a California clinic called Ovation Fertility destroyed embryos belonging to at least eleven people when an incubator was cleaned with hydrogen peroxide. The suit says that the clinic went ahead with transferring the ruined embryos for pregnancy, not realizing what had happened. A spokesperson for their company said it was an isolated incident which impacted a very small number of patients and that the company will continue to implement and enforce rigorous protocols to keep patients safe. And then there are the cases that have serious ramifications beyond what happens at any one facility. In Alabama, for example, several patients sued a fertility clinic after a hospital patient wandered into the room where their embryos were being stored and took them out of the freezer, destroying them. The case went all the way to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in February that the patients could sue the clinic for wrongful death because they are embryos were children. That decision temporarily halted IVF procedures at clinics across the state, with clinicians worrying they could be sued or worse anytime something happened to an embryo in the normal course of treatment. But it also put a giant national spotlight on problems that can occur away from patient's eyes in IVF labs.

Kinbody told us that these incidents were a fraction of the more than seven thousand freezing and IVF procedures that they've handled. The company said its incident rate zero point two percent, on par with the rate found in a twenty eighteen study. They said they weren't understaffed, and they disputed that there was an escalation in lab issues as the company grew. Some of the employees I talked to actually said that even though Cobody's labs did face some issues, the equipment and standards at Combody were much better than in other clinics where they'd worked. Issues and accidents in the lab are by no means unique to any one clinic. They're happening across the industry. There have been other allegations of things going wrong, like a recent lawsuit that alleges a California clinic called Ovation Fertility destroyed embryos belonging to at least eleven people when an incubator was cleaned with hydrogen peroxide. The suit says that the clinic went ahead with transferring the ruined embryos for pregnancy, not realizing what had happened. A spokesperson for their company said it was an isolated incident which impacted a very small number of patients and that the company will continue to implement and enforce rigorous protocols to keep patients safe. And then there are the cases that have serious ramifications beyond what happens at any one facility. In Alabama, for example, several patients sued a fertility clinic after a hospital patient wandered into the room where their embryos were being stored and took them out of the freezer, destroying them. The case went all the way to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in February that the patients could sue the clinic for wrongful death because they are embryos were children. That decision temporarily halted IVF procedures at clinics across the state, with clinicians worrying they could be sued or worse anytime something happened to an embryo in the normal course of treatment. But it also put a giant national spotlight on problems that can occur away from patient's eyes in IVF labs.

The issue of fertility misconduct, injuries, mishaps at fertility clinics and you know, almost always in the labs of fertility clinics, is a much larger issue than any of us knows, including myself.

The issue of fertility misconduct, injuries, mishaps at fertility clinics and you know, almost always in the labs of fertility clinics, is a much larger issue than any of us knows, including myself.

This is on a wolf. He's an attorney, and when it comes to fertility industry shenanigans, he's kind of seen it all.

This is on a wolf. He's an attorney, and when it comes to fertility industry shenanigans, he's kind of seen it all.

I cannot tell you the real scope of this problem because there is no reporting requirements, there is no central database. There is nothing that the public can turn to to understand the scope or magnitude of the problem of fertility center misconduct.

I cannot tell you the real scope of this problem because there is no reporting requirements, there is no central database. There is nothing that the public can turn to to understand the scope or magnitude of the problem of fertility center misconduct.

Not long after he took its first fertility case, he started getting a ton of calls.

Not long after he took its first fertility case, he started getting a ton of calls.

We started getting phone calls from other people, folks who said, oh, my embryos were also dropped on the grounds my clinic also lost our embryos. Our clinic transferred the wrong embryos to us. You know, the list can go on and on.

We started getting phone calls from other people, folks who said, oh, my embryos were also dropped on the grounds my clinic also lost our embryos. Our clinic transferred the wrong embryos to us. You know, the list can go on and on.

He developed a bit of a reputation for these cases.

He developed a bit of a reputation for these cases.

Attorney Adam Wolf tells CBS News he plans to file a class action lawsuit against the San Francisco clinic this week on behalf of the patients. He also filed a second lawsuit against the Ahuja Medical Center outside Cleveland.

Attorney Adam Wolf tells CBS News he plans to file a class action lawsuit against the San Francisco clinic this week on behalf of the patients. He also filed a second lawsuit against the Ahuja Medical Center outside Cleveland.

Adam's firm even purchased the domain lost embryos dot com. Adam says he's handled more than one thousand fertility mishap and misconduct cases over the last decade or so. In one of his biggest cases, in twenty eighteen, more than thirty five hundred eggs, embryos, and other genetic material were lost when a cryo tank failed at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco. Has firm represented about one hundred patients. A jury awarded five patients nearly fifteen million dollars. That verdict was appealed and eventually settled out of court. But I heard this a lot when talking to him. I'm not allowed to talk about it. Adam can't talk about a lot of his cases because they settle.

Adam's firm even purchased the domain lost embryos dot com. Adam says he's handled more than one thousand fertility mishap and misconduct cases over the last decade or so. In one of his biggest cases, in twenty eighteen, more than thirty five hundred eggs, embryos, and other genetic material were lost when a cryo tank failed at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco. Has firm represented about one hundred patients. A jury awarded five patients nearly fifteen million dollars. That verdict was appealed and eventually settled out of court. But I heard this a lot when talking to him. I'm not allowed to talk about it. Adam can't talk about a lot of his cases because they settle.

And I would say in eighty or ninety percent of our cases, we never even file a lawsuit because it is settled with the clinic on terms that include confidentiality, such that the public never finds out about it.

And I would say in eighty or ninety percent of our cases, we never even file a lawsuit because it is settled with the clinic on terms that include confidentiality, such that the public never finds out about it.

This is why we really have no idea how Cammon these kinds of mistakes are. Clinics are required to report their success rates, but they aren't required to report their errors. A twenty twenty study found one hundred and thirty three lawsuits were filed in the previous decade over loss discarded or damaged for his in embryos. That is probably only a fraction of cases. Adam's caseload a loan seems to prove that. Adam says that a lot of the time, what goes wrong as a genuine accident.

This is why we really have no idea how Cammon these kinds of mistakes are. Clinics are required to report their success rates, but they aren't required to report their errors. A twenty twenty study found one hundred and thirty three lawsuits were filed in the previous decade over loss discarded or damaged for his in embryos. That is probably only a fraction of cases. Adam's caseload a loan seems to prove that. Adam says that a lot of the time, what goes wrong as a genuine accident.

A lab tech looks up, you know, thinking about what movie he or she is going to see that night, and just mixes up embryo one and two. Or there's a labeling problem and you know, couple a's embryo is either not labeled or labeled with the names of couple B. Right, And you could see how that can happen. You can people make mistakes, I get it.

A lab tech looks up, you know, thinking about what movie he or she is going to see that night, and just mixes up embryo one and two. Or there's a labeling problem and you know, couple a's embryo is either not labeled or labeled with the names of couple B. Right, And you could see how that can happen. You can people make mistakes, I get it.

Sometimes, of course it's more nefarious than that You've probably heard about people doing twenty three in me and finding out that they have all these siblings they'd never heard of because a doctor covertly impregnated his own patients. All of this is part of why industry critics lobby for more regulation. They argue that fewer federal research dollars and sparse insurance coverage has let business decisions become a major driving force and setting practice standards. So the argument goes, we need more regulation to prevent that. One expert suggested fortility clinics should be treated like hospitals, which are required to report so called never events, the kind of stuff that should never happen, like leaving a sponge in a patient during surgery or perhaps implanting the wrong embryo in someone. People who work in the industry argue that it does have the proper amount of oversight.

Sometimes, of course it's more nefarious than that You've probably heard about people doing twenty three in me and finding out that they have all these siblings they'd never heard of because a doctor covertly impregnated his own patients. All of this is part of why industry critics lobby for more regulation. They argue that fewer federal research dollars and sparse insurance coverage has let business decisions become a major driving force and setting practice standards. So the argument goes, we need more regulation to prevent that. One expert suggested fortility clinics should be treated like hospitals, which are required to report so called never events, the kind of stuff that should never happen, like leaving a sponge in a patient during surgery or perhaps implanting the wrong embryo in someone. People who work in the industry argue that it does have the proper amount of oversight.

The labs are very regulated. In order to be having a laboratory data going to perform em brology work, they need to be cap inspected, which is the College of American Pathologies. They need to be a clear inspected. The FDA also comes and does surprise visits. As an average we have every two years, all.

The labs are very regulated. In order to be having a laboratory data going to perform em brology work, they need to be cap inspected, which is the College of American Pathologies. They need to be a clear inspected. The FDA also comes and does surprise visits. As an average we have every two years, all.

The same rules apply to fertility doctors and labs that apply to any medical doctors or labs. In the US, most clinics are also members of industry groups that have their own sets of standards. Other countries do set more rules for fertility practices, though, the UK, for example, as a special regulatory body just for fertility clinics. They have to get a special license and follow all the guidelines in a three hundred and thirty page rule book, including requiring two people to always id embryos when they're moving around a lab so there are no mix ups. There are no specific national fertility clinic regulations like that in the US.

The same rules apply to fertility doctors and labs that apply to any medical doctors or labs. In the US, most clinics are also members of industry groups that have their own sets of standards. Other countries do set more rules for fertility practices, though, the UK, for example, as a special regulatory body just for fertility clinics. They have to get a special license and follow all the guidelines in a three hundred and thirty page rule book, including requiring two people to always id embryos when they're moving around a lab so there are no mix ups. There are no specific national fertility clinic regulations like that in the US.

We need to have checks and balances in the labs of fertility clinics that greatly minimize and hopefully eradicate those types of errors.

We need to have checks and balances in the labs of fertility clinics that greatly minimize and hopefully eradicate those types of errors.

He wasn't talking about any one specific clinic, but one thing that really struck me was that his cases are often against high volume clinics.

He wasn't talking about any one specific clinic, but one thing that really struck me was that his cases are often against high volume clinics.

They're just doing a ton of procedures and it's all happening very quickly, and there's pressure to get it done, and it leads to mistakes, even if those clinics have proper standard operating procedures or SOPs. They're often not followed.

They're just doing a ton of procedures and it's all happening very quickly, and there's pressure to get it done, and it leads to mistakes, even if those clinics have proper standard operating procedures or SOPs. They're often not followed.

This explains why we are hearing about more and more of these mistakes as clinics backed by venture capital and private equity are under pressure to dial up the volume. Some patients don't have much insight into that side of things. They have no way of knowing if their clinic has settled a ton of lawsuits that never made it into the public eye. As I considered where I should freeze my own numbers, I kept thinking about this. I like to make decisions based on data, and most of the data I wanted was either non existent or not that reassuring. There still wasn't much data on women who had returned after freezing their eggs. One reason. YU study found that just thirty nine percent of women who did try to use their eggs wound up having a baby, so that number was high er if you were under thirty eight like me. Eventually I decided to freeze my eggs at NYU. It was a pioneer in egg freezing and still does a lot of freezing research. It had a good IVF success rate according to CDC data that I looked at after going off birth control and waiting a few months. It was finally time to start my freezing cycle. A box of drugs the size of a big beach cooler a my apartment. Inside were all the supplies I would need to rub up my reproductive system. Four types of hormones and a shit ton of needles.

This explains why we are hearing about more and more of these mistakes as clinics backed by venture capital and private equity are under pressure to dial up the volume. Some patients don't have much insight into that side of things. They have no way of knowing if their clinic has settled a ton of lawsuits that never made it into the public eye. As I considered where I should freeze my own numbers, I kept thinking about this. I like to make decisions based on data, and most of the data I wanted was either non existent or not that reassuring. There still wasn't much data on women who had returned after freezing their eggs. One reason. YU study found that just thirty nine percent of women who did try to use their eggs wound up having a baby, so that number was high er if you were under thirty eight like me. Eventually I decided to freeze my eggs at NYU. It was a pioneer in egg freezing and still does a lot of freezing research. It had a good IVF success rate according to CDC data that I looked at after going off birth control and waiting a few months. It was finally time to start my freezing cycle. A box of drugs the size of a big beach cooler a my apartment. Inside were all the supplies I would need to rub up my reproductive system. Four types of hormones and a shit ton of needles.

Hold the pen in one hand and with the other hand, pinch a fold of skin around the injection area.

Hold the pen in one hand and with the other hand, pinch a fold of skin around the injection area.

Okay, it's a big boy, have my GOSPATRITTI should just count? Okay, one, two of three? Nope, I still didn't go okay, I'm not ready. Cannatch it one more time.

Okay, it's a big boy, have my GOSPATRITTI should just count? Okay, one, two of three? Nope, I still didn't go okay, I'm not ready. Cannatch it one more time.

Ensured the entire needle straight into the skin at a forty five to ninety degree angle. Press the dose snob down as far as it will go.

Ensured the entire needle straight into the skin at a forty five to ninety degree angle. Press the dose snob down as far as it will go.

Okay, I think I'm ready. One, two, three, I was in it. Now the dose reads zero, so I guess I did it right. I fucking did it right. Every morning and night I was stabbing myself in the stomach with two long needles full of hormones that would make my bodies production go into hyperdrive. It's day two. I'm gonna try this whole injection thing. Hopefully it's slightly less frustrating than it was yesterday.

Okay, I think I'm ready. One, two, three, I was in it. Now the dose reads zero, so I guess I did it right. I fucking did it right. Every morning and night I was stabbing myself in the stomach with two long needles full of hormones that would make my bodies production go into hyperdrive. It's day two. I'm gonna try this whole injection thing. Hopefully it's slightly less frustrating than it was yesterday.

Day three.

Day three.

There we go.

There we go.

Okay, second vial of drugs? Oh Saturday? Does that make this day four of my cycle? I think I might be off book, but I'm terrified of screwing up, so I'm just gonna watch the video quickly before I do it. Day five of my fertility cycle. Fuck, I just dropped the needle. Okay, it's okay. I think I can sterilize it. I was responding well to the drugs, but I was also so tired and bloated. I'm just generally feeling like crap. Eighth day of my cycle. The tiredness is really what's killing me at this point. Mix mix, mix, mix mix. Needle is ready. Never get here. It wouldn't be long before I would know whether this crazy bet would actually pay off. So are you ready for it?

Okay, second vial of drugs? Oh Saturday? Does that make this day four of my cycle? I think I might be off book, but I'm terrified of screwing up, so I'm just gonna watch the video quickly before I do it. Day five of my fertility cycle. Fuck, I just dropped the needle. Okay, it's okay. I think I can sterilize it. I was responding well to the drugs, but I was also so tired and bloated. I'm just generally feeling like crap. Eighth day of my cycle. The tiredness is really what's killing me at this point. Mix mix, mix, mix mix. Needle is ready. Never get here. It wouldn't be long before I would know whether this crazy bet would actually pay off. So are you ready for it?

Yeah?

Yeah?

What's the news?

What's the news?

Tell me?

Tell me?

That's next time? On the final episode of Misconception. This series was written and reported by me Christen V. Brown. It was produced by Jilda Decarly and Stacey Wong and edited by Cynthia Koons. Additional research was done by Tana's Mcjohnny. It was engineered by Blake Maples. Our theme music was composed and performed by Hannis Brown Special thanks to Shelly Banjo, Randy Shapiro, Anna Maazarakis, Jeff Grocott, Lauras Andlenko, and Creighton Harrison. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening. If you want to binge the whole series early, go to Bloomberg dot com and hit subscribe. Then connect your Bloomberg dot Com subscription to Apple Podcasts, or listen as we release a new episode each week. See you next time.

That's next time? On the final episode of Misconception. This series was written and reported by me Christen V. Brown. It was produced by Jilda Decarly and Stacey Wong and edited by Cynthia Koons. Additional research was done by Tana's Mcjohnny. It was engineered by Blake Maples. Our theme music was composed and performed by Hannis Brown Special thanks to Shelly Banjo, Randy Shapiro, Anna Maazarakis, Jeff Grocott, Lauras Andlenko, and Creighton Harrison. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening. If you want to binge the whole series early, go to Bloomberg dot com and hit subscribe. Then connect your Bloomberg dot Com subscription to Apple Podcasts, or listen as we release a new episode each week. See you next time.