Forty years ago, the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born to Lesley Brown and her husband, John, a truck driver for British Rail. To pay for the experimental treatment, they used £800 John had won betting on soccer, the equivalent of almost £4,500 ($5,977) today.
In the decades since, an estimated 6.5 million babies have been born through in vitro fertilization. As the technology has become more mainstream, the costs have soared, putting fertility treatments beyond the reach of working-class patients like the Browns. In the U.S., the most expensive country for IVF, treatment cycles can cost as much as $23,000, according to FertilityIQ, a San Francisco-based website that collects fertility information and patient reviews. In the U.K. the average cycle costs about £5,000, almost one-fifth of the median annual disposable income of a British household.
