“This year, we would need 1200 donors: 900 women, 300 men, but we only have 450 donated oocytes and 260 sperm”. Faced with the shortage of donation of gametes, the Minister of Health Marisol Touraine has just announced, in an interview published in the regional daily Ouest-France, that the donation was going to be extended “to adults who have no ‘children’.
Until now, the donation has only been open to healthy adults who have had children. A new decree, which must appear this Thursday, October 15 in the Official Journal, extends the donation to adults without children. Thus, a woman, aged between 18 and 37, will be able to donate her oocytes. A man between the ages of 18 and 45 will be able to donate his sperm.
The donation of gametes is anonymous, free and freely consented, as for organ or blood donation. This extension of the donation results from the application of a decree of the Bioethics law of 2011. The Minister of Health has taken care to specify that, “to avoid any step that is not voluntary or sufficiently informed”, a consultation prior to a psychologist will be made compulsory. And to potential candidates, the minister assures that the donation of gametes does not alter “its own fertility”.
Too long a wait
This opening of the donation is good news for infertile couples many of which are often forced to go abroad to benefit from it before an in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The current shortage of donations results in a long wait for couples engaged in a process of medically assisted procreation. It can range from one to four years.
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