Why Chinese Women Come to Portland to Freeze Their Eggs

Medical tourism connects China to Oregon.

By Beth Slovic

The Chinese government doesn't allow unmarried women to seek fertility treatments in China under its decades-old policies designed to control the country's population.

Monday, The New York Times looked at the policy and the new way that Chinese women who want to freeze their eggs are subverting it—by traveling abroad.

The story also offered an intriguing Portland connection.

A Shanghai agency that helps Chinese women seek medical treatments outside the country works with fertility experts in Southwest Portland, at a practice called Oregon Reproductive Medicine.

China's population control is our economic development, it seems.

Willamette Week

Explore more on:

Chinafertility treatment

Beth Slovic

Beth Slovic

Beth Slovic joined Willamette Week as a staff writer in 2006, returning in 2014 after a three-year hiatus. She covers politics, immigration and more.

Willamette Week’s Monthly Donor Drive is on! When you support WW, you help keep Portland's leaders accountable. Our journalism costs money and as a small, locally owned, free publication, we rely on reader support rather than corporate dollars.

Become a Monthly Donor!

Support Us