Fertility options - Vulnerable couples must be protected

ONE couple in six is affected by it yet it remains one of the last taboos.

Infertility has made it impossible for significant numbers of Irish people to have children naturally. Yet, there are options and 2% of all births in Ireland – about 1,000 babies a year – are born after fertility treatment.

These children represent a great victory, a wonderful dream realised, for the couples involved but thousands more are not so lucky. Tens of thousands are left to consider their childlessness for the rest of their lives, persecuting themselves with unanswerable questions. It can very often be a destructive and divisive experience.

Even after an expensive – psychologically, emotionally and financially – series of interventions they might remain childless, alone and frustrated, too often diminished in their own eyes because they cannot make their entirely natural hopes real. Others find it hard to escape the cultural judgment imposed by a society where family and parenthood are considered on the highest plane.

Some childless couples are able to celebrate – albeit at a distance – as their contemporaries’ children pass the milestones along the journey to adulthood. For others this only adds to the pain of denial.

As science advances even more options are made available. These developments either prolong the agony of hope or turn failure into a family. Yesterday yet another development was unveiled in Britain.

A new IVF screening test dramatically increases the chances of a pregnancy. The test – which checks for abnormalities – more than doubles the chance of a woman conceiving. Initial results also show a live birth success rate of 80% per cycle of IVF. This is a considerable advance on today’s norms.

Coincidentally, a warning was issued yesterday suggesting that women should not rely on high street fertility tests to determine how many childbearing years they have left. Researchers have found that these tests are not comprehensive enough to allow people to make life-defining decisions based on the findings.

Couples who realise that they must seek help if they are to have children are vulnerable and we must do more to help them.

There are about 10 fertility clinics in this country, all of them private. Those linked to maternity hospitals are regulated but private enterprises are not and their clients are more exposed than they should be.

This is not as it should be as the issues and emotions involved are of the highest order.

As is to be expected in these situations there is a report gathering dust in some government office. It was published four years ago and has been ignored since.

Couples considering using one of these facilities do not even have the benefit of standardised information detailing the success rate of each clinic. Neither is there an obligation to provide or arrange counselling during what is a fraught psychological time as well as a huge physical challenge.

Correcting this situation does not involve reinventing the wheel but while we dither and avoid the issue thousands and thousands of the most vulnerable couples are left exposed. They should not be.