Dr Yvonne Frankfurth is a sociologist specialising in family, health, and reproduction. A former ReproSoc affiliate and graduate student, she now teaches and supervises in these areas at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge.
Her research examines the social, ethical, and legal dimensions of assisted reproductive technologies, with a focus on third-party reproduction—especially egg donation—as well as practices such as genetic testing of embryos and the emerging use of artificial intelligence in fertility care. She has particular expertise in the workings of European fertility clinics and in the decision-making processes of intended parents who travel abroad for treatment, analysing cross-border reproductive care in relation to wider debates on regulation, ethics, and reproductive markets, and exploring its implications for people conceived through donor conception, particularly around questions of donor identification and anonymity.
Her broader teaching and research interests lie in medical sociology and the sociology of science and reproduction, with an emphasis on how biomedical innovations and fertility technologies are reshaping what family means today — ideas of relatedness, genetic connection, and belonging. Her work is grounded in qualitative and ethnographic approaches.
Yvonne completed her PhD at Cambridge as an ESRC scholar in the ReproSoc group under Professor Sarah Franklin. Her thesis offered the first in-depth sociological study of German intended parents who travelled abroad for egg donation, tracing their decision-making, the obstacles created by Germany’s legal prohibition, and the moral, practical, and emotional questions they faced before, during, and after their fertility journeys to countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, and Spain. Drawing on additional interviews with clinicians, counsellors, lawyers, and policymakers, her research situated German cross-border fertility care within broader European debates on regulation and reproductive ethics, shedding light on how reproduction, motherhood, and embryos are understood and regulated in different national contexts.
Yvonne worked as an HP Lecturer and Graduate Teaching Assistant at King’s College London, where she taught the module Critical Policy Research at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.
She has held visiting research positions, including at Yale University, where she collaborated with scholars across Science and Technology Studies, Law, and Anthropology, and was appointed Youth Envoy to the UN’s Economic and Social Council Forum.
Yvonne holds a BA in Politics, Psychology, and Sociology (First Class, top 5% of her year group) and an MPhil with Distinction, both from the University of Cambridge. She received bursaries and funding for her degrees from the Cambridge European Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). She was also awarded the ESRC Overseas Institutional Visit Award and the Monica Kornberg Memorial Fund to support her research stay at Yale University. Before beginning her doctoral work, she co-founded SympatMe, a start-up supporting immigrant women in Germany, which has since grown into a leading platform for navigating bureaucratic systems.
Beyond academia, Yvonne works to make research accessible and actionable. She is the founder of Egg & Nest (www.eggandnest.com), a platform translating up-to-date studies and insights on egg donation families and donors across Europe into resources that help families navigate this journey. She also provides fertility consultations, webinars, and seminars, and contributes to media and public forums to pass on insights gained from her own research in this area. Her commentary has appeared in German broadcast media (ARD, Radio 1) and fertility fairs like the London Fertility Show and Wish for a Baby.
Selected Publications
Peer-reviewed
- Frankfurth, Y. (2022). Navigating anonymity and openness: Germans travelling abroad for egg donation. In Beier, K., Brügge, C., Thorn, P., & Wiesemann, C. (eds.), Familienbildung mit Hilfe Dritter [Making Families with Assisted Reproductive Technologies]. Springer (Medizin).
- Frankfurth, Y. (2020). Mothers, Morality and Abortion: The Politics of Reproduction in the Formation of the German Nation. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 18(3), 51–65
In preparation (2025)
- Frankfurth, Y. Divided Motherhood: The German Ban on Egg Donation. Based on PhD research, this article draws on interviews with German intended parents, clinicians, counsellors, lawyers, and policymakers to analyse how Germany’s prohibition of egg donation shapes reproductive decision-making. It situates cross-border fertility care within wider European policy debates, highlighting how national regulation reconfigures ideas of reproduction, motherhood, and the embryo.
- Frankfurth, Y. The Egg, the Sperm, and the Algorithm: Datafication and the Reorganization of Reproduction. Drawing on fieldwork in fertility clinics in Spain and the Czech Republic, including interviews with embryologists and analysis of donor catalogues and AI-based embryo selection tools, this article examines how reproductive data are captured, commodified, and circulated. It shows how datafication transforms gametes and embryos into measurable assets, reshapes clinical authority, and redefines kinship through algorithmic decision-making.
Media Engagement (selection)
- WDR Quarks Daily (2024). Social Freezing – A Chance or a False Solution? [Radio programme & podcast, WDR Quarks Daily].
- WELT (2024). “Wenn die Eizellspende die letzte Rettung ist – und Paare ins Ausland treibt” (When Egg Donation Is the Last Rescue – and Pushes Couples Abroad). Read here.
- ZEIT (2023). “Am Ende bleibt ein Schamgefühl. Eizellspende & Leihmutterschaft in den USA” (In the End, a Feeling of Shame Remains – Egg Donation & Surrogacy in the USA). Read here.
- Fertility Road Magazine (2022). “ROPA in Spain – A Legal IVF Option for Same-Sex Female Couples.”
- Femtastics – Germany’s leading feminist magazine (2022). “Wie Social Freezing die Fruchtbarkeit verlängern kann” (How Social Freezing Can Extend Fertility).
- Babywunsch Magazine (2021). “Flug ins Babyglück? Eizellspende im Ausland” (Flight into Baby Bliss? Egg Donation Abroad).
- ARD Plus-Minus, German Public Broadcasting (2019, 2021). “Eizellspende – Beweggründe und Erfahrungen” (Egg Donation: Motives and Experiences).
- Radio 1, German Public Broadcasting (2017). Coverage of Germany’s first fertility fair, Kinderwunschtage Berlin (Fertility Days Berlin).
