Making babies

"I don't know if that man is still alive, but his child surely is," the veteran gynecologist says.

Through their research, they can help families better understand the risks of diseases, she adds.

China had very few hospitals that specialized in IVF until 2000. After the rules for the sector were set two years later, more units came up. Now, a total of 356 hospitals and clinics are licensed on the mainland to provide assisted reproduction, says the Health and Family Planning Commission.

But will more middle-aged Chinese take to assisted reproduction with the two-child policy underway?

Chen Wei, a professor of Sociology and Population Studies at Renmin University of China, says such techniques have already played an important role in helping couples become parents in the big cities.

Analyzing fertility rates of the past decades, he expects the new policy to create a "small baby boom" from 2017 to 2019.

That may happen with or without assisted reproduction.

Feng Zhiwei, Wen Xinzheng, Yang Wanli, Luan Shu, Tian Yuan and Liu Zhihua contributed to this story.