The government is to sponsor free IVF treatments starting from September conditional on that the woman is under 41 years of age and of a certain BMI (body mass index) – standards which the government say were recommended by a group of working clinical experts.
Couples who have a clinical form of infertility will qualify for the scheme, while those who already have children will not.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly secured 10 million euro for the scheme in the previous budget and is forecast to seek a further 30 million in funding to finance the scheme into the new year.
The limitations on those eligible to apply for the scheme drew criticism from Labour Senator Marie Sherlock who said that age and weight as cut off points were, “rather crude cut-off criteria.”
Speaking on Morning Ireland, Sherlock who recently took part in the Oireachtas Committee’s questioning of RTÉ said, “I would be concerned about that. But I think most what stands out most to me is the exclusion of those who have an unknown cause of infertility,”
“We know that of the one in six couples who experienced infertility in this country, about 25pc have an unknown cause. And when we look to countries, let’s say like the UK, the clinical guidelines there recommend that women with unexplained infertility who cannot conceive after two years are eligible then for the publicly funded IVF – and I don’t understand why that cannot be included here.”
“I think that will be very unfair to those with unexplained fertility causes.” she added.
The HSE states that individuals with a BMI of 20 – 25 are of a healthy weight while a BMI of 30 and over “can impact on your ability to get pregnant”, it also states that higher BMIs can “increase your risk of pregnancy complications,”
The Mayo Clinic describes IVF as a “complex series of procedures”.
“During IVF, mature eggs are collected (retrieved) from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then the fertilized egg (embryo) or eggs (embryos) are transferred to a uterus.”
“One full cycle of IVF takes about three weeks. Sometimes these steps are split into different parts and the process can take longer,” it says.