In-vitro fertilisation practitioner Paul Sultana says egg freezing is “a political solution” that accommodates the Church and pleases everyone except the patient.
Mr Sultana, the laboratory director at Saint James Hospital, believes the main failing of the proposed Bill is that it limits fertilisation to two eggs.
“This reduces the chances of pregnancy and ignores the reality that patients have different medical histories.”
Having practised IVF in the private sector for more than 20 years, Mr Sultana said the two-egg limit reduced the chances of creating viable embryos, especially for patients over 30 and those with particular medical conditions.
He quoted figures from the Italian registry saying that the pregnancy success rate when using frozen eggs was around 12 per cent.
Referring to the high success rate trumpeted by Italian doctor Eleonora Porcu, Mr Sultana said this was achieved in patients aged between 26 and 30.
“The success rate of her clinic, which is a centre of excellence when it comes to egg freezing, drops to 19 per cent in women aged between 30 and 35,” he said.
Interviewed by The Times last month Dr Porcu said her clinic had studied oocyte vitrification (egg freezing) since 1996. Some 500 children had been born after being conceived using frozen eggs at her clinic.
She insisted pregnancy levels obtained with oocyte vitrification approached those obtained with fresh eggs and equalled those obtained with frozen embryos.
However, she noted that age was the most important variable in IVF, irrespective of whether the eggs used in the process were fresh or frozen.
The Bill piloted by Justice Minister Chris Said states that only two embryos can be transferred to the mother and it also disallows embryo freezing.
To ensure this happens, the Bill says that only two eggs can be fertilised.
This means that the extra eggs produced after stimulating the woman will be stored for use at a later stage if the first cycle fails to produce embryos or a pregnancy.
However, Mr Sultana said it would be better if IVF clinicians were allowed the leeway to fertilise a higher number of eggs and if more than two embryos were formed, the extra ones would be frozen.
He explained that over the past five years, Saint James had achieved a pregnancy rate of 45 per cent, which is very high by international standards. “We fertilise between four or five eggs to sometimes achieve three embryos and even when these are all transferred not all result in pregnancy. In five years we only had seven sets of triplets,” he said.
Mr Sultana said that instead of a limit imposed by the law, there should be a committee that decides on the severity of infertility, giving doctors and their patients greater leeway in taking medical decisions that improve the success rate.
“The government has been talking to us and is actively listening to our concerns,” he said, hoping that the final Bill will be changed accordingly.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com