THEthe drama of empty cradles in Italy must also be addressed on the front of‘infertility. Access to medically assisted procreation techniques (Pma) to have a child, however, is marked by two critical points.
Infertility: lack of centers in the Center – South
The first concerns the lack of Pma public centers in the Centre-South. «The couple forced to emigrate to the North hardly obtains authorization from their health company.
Therefore, the therapy must be paid for, because the Conference of Regions has not yet approved the decree that defines the rates for assisted fertilization and the Regions with fewer resources only reimburse their own centres», he explains Luca Mencaglia, coordinator of the technical table for the prevention and treatment of infertility of the Ministry of Health.
Average age of women higher
The second problem is theincreasingly higher average age of women who resort to Pma: from 35 years old in 2005 to almost 37 in 2020. Women in their forties have gone from 21 to 36 percent. “The chance of having a child is related to age: it is 32 per cent under the age of 34 and drops to 9 per cent between 40 and 42”, underlines Paola Anserini, elected president of the Italian Society of Fertility and Sterility.
There is a solution
We need to reverse course: “Given that in more than 40 percent of patients infertility is determined by age, when the use of oocyte donation also increases, it would be necessary to propose theself-preservation of oocytes in the fertile age to women who do not feel in a position to have a child”. A paid service “but which – says Anserini – could guarantee cycles of assisted fertilization with its own oocytes”.
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED