A plan to combat infertility will be submitted to President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the year.
- For a little over a month, researchers have been working on the issue of infertility with the aim of arriving at a national plan.
- In France, more and more couples are finding it difficult to conceive a child naturally: one in four is faced with a problem of infertility.
“This plan aims, above all, to shorten the suffering, the anguish and the worry of the couples confronted with the problem of infertility. When they are told that they have this concern, it is heaven falling for them on the head”. During a fairly agitated press conference, Professor Samir Hamamah, rapporteur for the 1st national plan to fight against infertility, said a little more about his objectives and the substance of his thinking.
Increase in infertility
“There are as many infertile people in the world as there are people with diabetes. Yet there is no international day to raise awareness about infertility”, he laments. In fact, the number of couples facing difficulties in conceiving a child continues to grow: infertility increases by 0.3% per year among women and 0.4% among men.
Even if the factors are multiple, the decline in the quality of sperm is particularly problematic. “I have the impression that the share of male infertility is increasing. In our practice, we notice much more severe abnormalities on the sperm, such as azoospermia (or the absence of sperm in the ejaculate)” , details Dr. Nadia Kazdar, medical biologist specializing in PMA, working at Unilabs France. Samir Hamamah confirms: “Thehe first paper that drew attention to this problem dates back to 1992: Danish researchers then demonstrated that there was a decline in sperm concentration. In France, we have also proved it quite indirectly, even if there are geographical disparities. For example, a decline in fertility has been observed among sperm donors from the Paris region, but not among those who live in Toulouse.
For early prevention
For Professor Samir Hamamah, the implementation of early prevention around infertility is essential, from college to university. “It’s a real public health problem, we must warn the population. Afterwards, everyone is free to lead the life they want”, he points out. The expert also wishes to place reproductive health within the more general framework of sexual health.
At last, “Infertility must be understood as a couple’s problem, and not a problem of Mr. or Mrs. There is no infertile woman or infertile man, there is an infertile couple”, concludes Dr. Reda Benmansour, medical biologist specializing in PMA.
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