Armenian parliament sets age threshold for IVF
YEREVAN, June 4. /ARKA/. By a vote of 82 to 9 abstentions Armenia's National Assembly has approved today in the second and final reading a set of amendments and additions to the law on reproductive health and reproductive rights, which, in particular, call for setting an age threshold for in vitro fertilization (IVF) and creating a donor base.
Acting Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan told the parliament that the amendments were designed to regulate the application of technologies used in reproductive health, bringing them into a single legal framework, increasing the controllability of processes and ensuring a higher quality of medical care and services.
The minister explained that the regulation of new reproductive technologies means now a single, holistic service, which creates difficulties for regional medical organizations in carrying out a number of procedures.
"Provincial medical institutions are not able to carry out any part of the procedures independently, and citizens are still forced to come to Yerevan from time to time to use these services," she said.
She said the approved changes set restrictions on how many times a person can be a donor (until now, this issue has been left to the discretion of medical institutions). Also, age restrictions for women is established.
"The age threshold is 53 years. We examined the international experience and, taking into account the standard of living, in general, the health situation of our population, and we believe that this is the threshold that is sufficient, on the one hand, to provide a woman with the opportunity to have children, but on the other hand, in a higher age group, these technologies can harm the health of women," she said.
According to the findings of a survey conducted back in 1992, the infertility rate in married couples in Armenia was 23.4 percent. Another survey done in 2004 found 31.8 percent infertility in Armenia and yet another one conducted in 2010 found that the infertility rate dropped to 16.8 percent.
In 2014, the infertility rate among women in Armenia was 14.9 percent and 9.5% among men.-0-
