Hong Kong’s health chief has drawn criticism from lawmakers after likening women’s fertility to “soil,” saying it deteriorates over time and therefore couples in the city should give birth to children while they are young.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau on Thursday said women should not forget that fertility declines with age and that freezing their eggs may not help them conceive later, as he addressed a legislature debate on a motion for policies supporting assisted reproduction.
“It is not just a problem with the eggs, it is also a problem with the soil. Even if you have frozen your eggs, when you have reached 40, the chance that the egg could become a healthy baby will drop substantially,” he said in Cantonese.
“Freezing the eggs could not revert the physiological limit on women’s reproductive age,” he added.
Lawmaker Nixie Lam, 42, who opted for assisted reproduction and gave birth to her first child last year, appeared emotional as she called Lo’s remarks a “heavy blow” to all women in the city.
“The way the minister spoke just now, is it that I couldn’t give birth because my soil was bad?” Lam, who also initiated the non-binding motion, said in Cantonese.
“I believe the minister’s remarks would deal a heavy blow even to women without child-birth issues. You are telling them… they cannot get pregnant because the soil in their bodies is bad, and they should give birth naturally whilst they are still young,” she continued.
“How can you give birth when you are 18 and still studying?” Lam said. “Not everyone is like the minister yourself, who met your match in your 20s, got your degree, got married, and had a kid, all in a row.”
‘Have children early’
Hong Kong recorded a fertility rate of 0.75 births per woman last year, one of the lowest in the world. A survey published last month showed that only around half of the city’s young adults plan to have children.
The government has sought to boost the fertility rate with policies that incentivise child-birth, including a cash handout of HK$20,000 for new parents, as well as offering more assisted reproductive services.
Chief Executive John Lee said last October the government wants couples to “have children early” while they are still “in their prime,” as he explained why measures to boost fertility in his second policy address did not include enhancing the city’s egg freezing policy.
Hong Kong provides reproductive technology services including in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Under current regulations, a woman can freeze her eggs until she is 55 or for 10 years, whichever is later, according to the Council on Human Reproductive Technology.
See also: Hong Kong’s low birth rate needs more than cash to convince couples to have kids
Lam’s motion urged authorities to extend the 10-year storage period, citing later marriages among residents, and increase the quotas of IVF clinics in the city’s public healthcare institutions.
But Lo said the success rate of IVF for patients above 40 was below 10 per cent, arguing that the extension of storage period would not help more woman conceive. The success rate of IVF for patients aged 26 to 30 was about 50 per cent, he added.
He also said there are currently over 20,000 frozen eggs in the city’s licensed centres, but only 50 were fertilised in 2023 and just seven became embryos.
“We have to invest a massive amount of resources, but is that a good way to [boost fertility]?” he said.
Lo also said young couples should plan for their family life at an early stage as children were “gifts from the heaven,” adding that he had “led by example.”
He said the government would consider referencing mainland Chinese authorities, which had promoted events to help young adults match partners in parks and public spaces.
Lawmaker Regina Ip said she had her first child using reproductive technology when she was 39, adding that Lo’s remarks were an “insult” to many professional women in the city.
She added the government should amend existing legislations to promote a friendly childbearing environment not just to young couples, but also to couples in their middle-age and homosexual couples, who Ip said would cherish their children more if they had the chance.
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