“Unfortunately, the successes of the techniques make us think that they can solve everything, but this is not the case. We have a very powerful tool, which is the cryopreservation of oocytes for oncological and medical, but also sociological reasons”, social freezing. “However, the chance of having children with those eggs is 90%. In 2005 the average age of women undergoing assisted reproduction cycles was 35 years and 20.7% were over 40 years old. In 2021, the average has risen to 36.8 years and women over 40 are 34.4%. The data refers to those who cycle with their gametes, therefore excluding egg donation.” Thus Paola Anserini, president of Sifes-Mr, Italian Society of Fertility, Sterility and Reproductive Medicine, at Adnkronos Salute today, in Paris, where around fifty European experts met at the ‘Tackling infertility’ conference, organized by the French Federation of studies on reproduction (Ffer), with the support of Merck, to create a manifesto of recommendations for the legislators of the EU states to face the demographic winter of our continent.
“Pma is not the last resort: if you are unable to have children, you must contact a fertility specialist”, warns Anserini, recalling that currently children born with medically assisted fertilization are around 4% of the total. Then thinking about an ideal roadmap to reverse the trend of the birth rate decline, for the expert it is essential “to make public centers of medium-assisted procreation (Pma) able to compete with the private level because Pma is supported, but we cannot find biologists , doctors willing to work in these centers”.
Then referring to the increase in women over 40 who wish to have children, the expert supports the importance of increasing egg donation. As is known, with increasing age the oocytes also age, therefore reducing the probability of leading to a pregnancy. Currently, in Italy “almost 100% of oocytes are imported from foreign private banks – underlines Anserini – This is a reality that follows commercial criteria due to the shortage of oocytes which is difficult to sustain even for the public system. For this reason, the self-preservation of oocytes should be encouraged in the public not only for health issues – oncological treatments, neurodegenerative diseases, early menopause – but also in women between 28 and 33 years old, clearly involving jurists and bioethicists, but I believe it is a path to to follow, as an additional possibility, but also with a view to egg donation, in the event that the woman does not use it”.
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