The world is going to look very different by 2050, and the inventor of the Pill thinks our sex lives will too.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Austrian-American author and chemistry professor Carl Djerassi says sex will be purely recreational by 2050, because more people will be turning to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to have children.
Djerassi, 91, who is considered a father of the Pill, helped create the oral contraceptive in 1951. He adds parents-to-be will freeze their eggs and sperm before being sterilized, and the Pill will become redundant. He also adds more families will choose IVF methods, even if they don't have fertility issues.
"The vast majority of women who will choose IVF in the future will be fertile women who have frozen their eggs and delayed pregnancy,” he told the Telegraph. “Women in their twenties will first choose this approach as insurance, providing them with freedom in the light of professional decisions or the absence of the right partner or the inexorably ticking of the biological clock."
According to the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, 11,806 IVF treatments were preformed at 28 IVF centres across the country in 2010, which resulted in over 3,000 live births.
Apart from being a treatment for infertility, some people may turn to IVF methods due to genetics or other health conditions like ovulation disorders or damage in the Fallopian tubes, the Mayo Clinic adds.
Djerassi claims IVF use will result in a "mañana generation," because people will have a chance to plan their pregnancies in advance. On the other hand, he says this will also lower abortion rates, since children will not be unplanned.
In addition to how women's contraceptives will change, he also says the male contraceptive pill is still unlikely.
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In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Austrian-American author and chemistry professor Carl Djerassi says sex will be purely recreational by 2050, because more people will be turning to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to have children.
Djerassi, 91, who is considered a father of the Pill, helped create the oral contraceptive in 1951. He adds parents-to-be will freeze their eggs and sperm before being sterilized, and the Pill will become redundant. He also adds more families will choose IVF methods, even if they don't have fertility issues.
"The vast majority of women who will choose IVF in the future will be fertile women who have frozen their eggs and delayed pregnancy,” he told the Telegraph. “Women in their twenties will first choose this approach as insurance, providing them with freedom in the light of professional decisions or the absence of the right partner or the inexorably ticking of the biological clock."
According to the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, 11,806 IVF treatments were preformed at 28 IVF centres across the country in 2010, which resulted in over 3,000 live births.
Apart from being a treatment for infertility, some people may turn to IVF methods due to genetics or other health conditions like ovulation disorders or damage in the Fallopian tubes, the Mayo Clinic adds.
Djerassi claims IVF use will result in a "mañana generation," because people will have a chance to plan their pregnancies in advance. On the other hand, he says this will also lower abortion rates, since children will not be unplanned.
In addition to how women's contraceptives will change, he also says the male contraceptive pill is still unlikely.
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