PMA stands for medically assisted procreationa series of procedures to which couples approach for infertility problems widespread for over thirty years. But it is also a procedure that they access single moms Thatfor various reasons, I don’t want to give up motherhood despite not having a partner.
Single moms
«If, as it is often defined, motherhood is a journey, the one faced by single mothers by choice And a cross between the Odyssey and Beijing Express. They are women who choose the path of medically assisted procreation in more permissive countries than ours, crossing at the same time the somewhat impervious territory of one’s own conscience. In the pages of my book I have collected the testimonies of many women to give them to those who want to understand, or who want to undertake the same journey, confronting themselves with the possibilities of science and the regulatory labyrinths, the fragility of the body and the discrimination still affecting the non-traditional family, doubts and loneliness. AND the power of love“, tells Georgia Wurthauthor of “Single Moms by Choice: Women Who Prefer Science While Waiting for Prince Charming”.
PMA: a conscious choice
“I wrote this book for dispel a very strong prejudice: it is thought that anyone who is reduced to having a child alone is a “mature woman”, a loser who has not managed to find a shred of man and who therefore, due to the anxiety of the biological clock ticking, decides to have a child alone. Obviously there is also this, but not only. There are many very young women who make this choice consciously. Maybe why they have a disease so they can’t afford to wait or because they know it will be for them very difficult to find a compromise with a man, also at an educational level. In short, they know that married life is not for them, so in order to avoid divorces, they prevent all this and decide to have a child alone. In Italy we don’t have the precise numbers since in the data ISTAT single women by choice and by the choice of others convergebut we can say that they are growing», continues the author.
PMA for singles abroad
«It is known that for cultural, environmental and perhaps even opportunity reasons that in Italy there are no egg donors, i.e. there are no women who spontaneously donate their oocytes to other women just to give them the chance to become mothers. In fact, we don’t even have a satisfactory sperm donation system. In various foreign countries, especially Spain, but also Greece, Albania, Belgium, Ukraine and beyond, it is instead possible to take advantage of a donation programme. The major differences compared to Italy concern the possibility of accessing the procedures also by single women And of couples of women who are married. The donor tests they are very thorough and guarantee the fact that the same are healthy subjects, without physical or psychological problems, with no history of disease in their family,” explains the Doctor Girolamo Landinodirector of the Landino Salerno-Milan-Malaga medical office and director of the PMA center of the Tortorella nursing home in Salerno.
The ovarian reserve
«The age of the majority of the patients who approach for the first time in a consultation, he is almost 38 years old. This represents basic a problem compared to the possibilities which she would have had if she had come to observation 3-4 years earlier. In Italy there is one low awareness of women regarding the concept of ovarian reserve, generally known as the biological clock. It’s done a lot confusion between menopause and reproductive capacity; many still today think that as long as there is menstruation a pregnancy can be achieved. Previously an awareness program was implemented by the Ministry of Healtheven with respect to the possibility of preserve fertility in young women that for various needs they had decided to postpone maternity leave, but to date the results are still unsatisfactory» underlines Doctor Landino.
Identikit of single mothers
“I am economically independent womenon average quite educated, with a job. They have matured this decision in a profound way, also thanks to a psychological journey. Many they would rather have done it with a man, therefore a father figure to support in raising his child, but this has not always been possible for various reasons. Many have been betrayed, making them believe that the desire for a family was shared by the couple when this was not the case. Rather than deceive the man and go against his will, decide to become mothers on their own. They have a very important family and friendship network around them because you can’t do it alone. AND they are happy womenhappy as when the dream of life comes true, after numerous trips abroad, hormonal bombardments, delusions, miscarriages. They are happy women, but also very very tired», concludes Wurth.
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