Biography
Yvonne is an affiliate at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, who gives lectures and supervises on gender, health and reproduction. She is a former ESRC graduate student at ReproSoc under the supervision of Prof Sarah Franklin.
Yvonne is a trained sociologist with an interest in the roles of gender and race in the use of health technologies, as well as the social and ethical discourses around the use and legislation of reproductive technologies, focusing on the US, the UK and Germany. She has extensive teaching experience, mostly in the areas of (advanced) social theory, gender, health, sexuality, reproduction, policy, qualitative and ethnographic methods.
Her previous research explored the public and policy debates around the regulation of reproductive technologies, with a focus on egg donation and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, embryo research, as well as the use of AI in fertility treatment. As part of her PhD she also examined reproductive tourism and the fertility market for IVF and gamete donation in Europe, particularly the move of patients seeking treatments across Germany, Spain, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and the UK. Yvonne also completed a project on the implications of using artificial intelligence for embryo selection during IVF in developing countries.
Next to her academic work, Yvonne offers a small number of fertility consultations, webinars and seminars, to pass on her insights on the the hurdles that intended parents face, and help unpack the data around success rates and provide transparent insights into the realities of patients seeking fertility treatment today. To ensure her research reaches the public, she writes articles for various fertility websites and magazines, such as EggDonationFriends, Fertility Road, Es-klappt-nicht.de, and takes part in public engagement events, such as the London Fertility Show and the international fair "Wish for a baby".
After the completion of her PhD in 2021, Yvonne worked as a temporary HP lecturer /GTA at King’s College London, where she taught the module Critical Policy Research at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.
Yvonne was an ESRC-funded PhD student at ReproSoc and the Department of Sociology. During her PhD, Yvonne was supervised by Prof Sarah Franklin. From 2017/2018 she conducted fieldwork in Germany to examine the German legal prohibition of egg donation and the costs that this ban imposes on German clinicians, intended parents and their children conceived via egg donation abroad (project website, www.eispende.com).
Her research has been published in academic journals, such as International Women’s Journal and Springer-Publishing House, and featured in academic conferences and the media, for example the German public broadcasting programmes ARD and Radio 1, as well as in popular media, such as fertility websites and magazines like Babywunsch, Fertility Road, etc.
Yvonne completed her undergraduate degree in Chinese/Language Studies, and Politics, Psychology and Sociology (PPS) at the University of Cambridge 2009-2013. She finished among the top 5% of her class, graduating with a first-class BA Hons / MA Cantab. She gained some professional work experience for two years after her undergraduate degree. Yvonne was involved with the European projects Youth in Action (YIA) and Young European Federalists (JEF), after having previously completed a traineeship at the Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM) at the European Parliament, Brussels. She gained work and research experience at the BMW Herbert Quandt Foundation before she founded the start-up SympatMe in late 2014. Starting as a platform to help immigrant women with bureaucratic processes in Germany. Today, SympatMe has become a major source of support for an increasing number of internationals settling in Germany every year.
Yvonne received a Distinction for her MPhil degree at Cambridge. In her MPhil dissertation, Yvonne examined the public discourse around the Legalisation of Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) in Germany in 2011, also referred to as the debate on the ‘designer-baby technology’. To this end, she drew on explorative, in-depth interviews with German policy-makers, fertility clinicians and lawyers. You can find more information on repro-travel.com.
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters
Frankfurth, Y. (2021). Navigating anonymity and openness: Germans travelling abroad for egg donation. In Beier, K., Brügge, C., Thorn, P., and Wiesemann, C. (eds.), Familienbildung mit Hilfe Dritter [Making Families with Assisted Reproductive Technologies]. Springer-Verlag (Medizin).
Frankfurth, Y. (2017). 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.
Under Review
Frankfurth, Y. (2025). "Selecting Phenotypical Markers and Beyond -- Ethnic and Queer Dimensions of Egg Donor Selection Processes in Europe and the USA." Under review.
Selection of interviews, newspaper articles, radio broadcasts appearances
WELT. Interview by Sabine Menkens. "When Egg donation is the last rescue" (Wenn die Eizellspende die letzte Rettung ist – und Paare ins Ausland treibt). January 4, 2024.
WDR 1 Radio Programme on Social Freezing with Yvonne Frankfurth. 2024. "Quarks Daily - Social Freezing A Chance or misleading solution?" (Social Freezing - Eine Chance oder eine Scheinlösung?) https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/daily-quarks/audio-eizellen-einfrier...
ZEIT. Interview by Madeleine Londene. "At the end there is a feeling of shame. Egg donation and Surrogacy in the USA." (Am Ende bleibt ein Schamgefühl. Eizellen-Spende & Leihmutterschaft in den USA." April 2022. Fertility Road. 2022. Article contribution,"ROPA in Spain – a legal IVF option for same-sex female couples". https://fertilityroad.com/fr-magazine/2022/Issue-56-2022-FR-Magazine.pdf
Femtastics. Germany's biggest feminist blog. "Interview with Yvonne Frankfurth - How Social Freezing may extend fertility" (Interview mit Yvonne Frankfurth - Wie Social Freezing die Fruchtbarkeit verlängern kann). 2022. https://femtastics.com/familie/kinderwunsch-social-freezing-fruchtbarkeit/
Babywunsch. 2021. Article contribution "Leaving the Nation to have a Child - Tracing the journeys of Germans who travel to Austria for egg donation" (Flug ins Babyglück? Eizellspende im Ausland. Yvonne Frankfurth)
ARD Plus-Minus, German Public Broadcasting, Interview, “Research Study on the German Prohibition of Egg Donation” (Eizellenspende, Beweggründe und Erfahrungen), August 23, 2017.
Radio 1, Interview, German public broadcasting programme on Germany’s first fertility show, February 21, 2017.
Websites
Please visit the research website Repro-Travel (www.repro-travel.com) for more information on the PhD project.
To access more information about the study on the German prohibition of egg donation (Eizellspende), please visit www.eispende.com. The website is in German and primarily intended to recruit interviewees, such as German fertility clinicians, experts and intended parents.
Engagements
Yvonne pursues her social engagement and interest in emerging technologies as founder of the German fertility platform, Es klappt nicht (www.es-klappt-nicht.de). From fertility tracking apps to finding an egg donor, she combines relevant research insights and personal interviews with experts and intended parents to shed light on women’s use of reproductive technologies in Germany. Keen to learn more about the real-world applications of artificial intelligence, she is a volunteer at Re-Work, where she helps bring together AI-stakeholders from industry and academia to network, exchange knowledge and incite public debate on the use of new technologies.