Unlike France, several countries offer women and men the possibility of freezing their own oocytes and spermatozoa in anticipation of a subsequent parental project.
Controlling your biological clock means allowing women to become mothers beyond the age of 40, that is to say when natural fertility declines. Based on gratuity and altruism, the French system prohibits the conservation of gametes for personal reasons, with the exception of illness.
This principle could well be shattered. According to exclusive information published on the website of Release, a decree in preparation “will allow men and women who have not yet had children to donate their gametes, sperm and oocytes”.
Four years of discussions for an apparently innocuous and common sense measure: encouraging donations. “At the end of 2013, recalls journalist Catherine Mallaval, 2,600 couples were waiting for sperm or oocytes. Discouraged and often ready (when they have the means) to go abroad to accomplish their family project. »
Of the 24,000 children who are born with medical assistance, 5% do so with medical assistance. The text, which Marisol Touraine will sign in a few days, should make it possible to double the number of donors, bringing it to 900.
But to encourage donations, – and this is the great novelty – the legislator has provided for compensation. Those who donate their gametes will be able to keep half of them in the event of personal recourse to medically assisted procreation. Provided that the quantity of gametes provided as part of the donation is sufficient.
Aware of the evolution of society towards later parental projects and the increase in “medical tourism” in this area, the College of French Gynecologists came out in 2012 in favor of egg freezing. This proposal had no response. It arrives today with a certain lag.
