This relatively low figure can be explained by the gap that exists between requests, which are clearly increasing, and the waiting time from making the first appointment to the first attempt.
A low figure, but which should explode in 2023. According to figures published this Wednesday by the Biomedicine Agency, 21 babies born to female couples or single women have been recorded in France since the PMA vote for all. This statistic is the first of its kind, following the adoption by Parliament of the bioethics law on June 29, 2021, which opened up PMA to all women.
Contacted by The Parisian, Silvia Alvarez, gynecologist in Paris and member of the collective of private centers for AMP (medically assisted procreation), tempers this data. “It must be recognized that 21 births is not a lot. We must also see what the 444 ongoing pregnancies that were counted as of December 31 will give,” she said.
“Standardization process”
In addition, beyond simple births, Claire de Vienne, referent doctor at the Biomedicine Agency, the structure which regulates the donation of gametes and medically assisted procreation or “PMA”, indicates that the most important remains the number PMA requests.
In total, some 22,800 requests for first consultations for medically assisted procreation with sperm donation have been recorded from couples of women and single women since the implementation of this law.
“We were surprised by the scale of the requests and now we are going to enter a process of normalization”, rejoices Claire de Vienne.
About 14 months of waiting
In detail, in 2022 alone, nearly 9,300 requests were recorded in the first half of the year for an initial consultation with a view to ART with sperm donation for the benefit of couples of women or unmarried women, followed by a slowdown to 5,800 requests in the second half.
The fact remains that the treatment time for ART with sperm donation continues to vary greatly from one center to another. The average time is however stabilizing and was estimated at 14.4 months at the national level, from making the appointment until the first attempt, continues the agency which intends to reduce this time with the opening of new centers dedicated to this activity.
In fact, in the coming months, the figure of 21 births is set to increase drastically.
Moreover, since the entry into force of the law, nearly 2000 first attempts at ART have been carried out for the benefit of couples of women (47%) or unmarried women (53%). And as of December 31, 2022, nearly 5,600 people were waiting for ART with sperm donation, including 36% female couples and 38% unmarried women.
