Sixteen frozen embryos are being stored at Mater Dei Hospital, three months after the practice was introduced as a procedure in fertility treatments in Malta, according to the 2018 Embryo Protection Authority annual report.
The Embryo Protection Authority, which regulates all assisted reproductive technology (ART), received 27 requests for embryo freezing. Though all of these requests were accepted, only 10 prospective parents had resultant embryos to freeze.
In turn, this led to 16 embryos being cryopreserved (medical term used for preservation through the use of cooling at low temperatures). All of these cases concern services offered at Mater Dei’s ART clinic, as this is not offered at St James Hospital, which is privately owned.
Furthermore, two of these 10 prospective parents are expecting to give birth, meaning that if they decide against resorting to ART in the future, their remaining embryos could be given up for adoption.
During the period under review, controversial amendments to the Embryo Protection Act came into force, whereby prospective parents could opt to have a number of embryos frozen, for future use, in order to improve the success rate.
READ: 500 doctors object to embryo freezing
These and other changes, including the possibility of adopting an unused embryo, had prompted fierce objections from over 500 medical doctors, mainly on ethical grounds, to the point that they had even presented a signed declaration to Health Minister Chris Fearne. Though the government had watered down the initial proposal by ditching the introduction of surrogacy, it forged ahead on embryo freezing, which came into force on October 1 of last year.
Take-home baby rate increased by 1.92 per cent when compared to 2017
Prior to these changes, such a measure was only allowed in exceptional circumstances owing to grave and certified force majeur not predicted at the moment of fertilisation.
In this respect the report noted that apart from the 16 embryos frozen as part of the routine treatment introduced in the last three months of last year, there were a further two that hat been vitrified prior to that under the exceptional cases clause. Moreover, it notes that during the entire six-year period between 2013 and 2018, just seven embryos had been vitrified on similar exceptional grounds.
READ: Embryo freezing is ‘a must’, couples suffering in silence - lab director
Apart from this particular aspect, the report notes that last year the so-called take-home baby rate, which measures the fraction of birth events from the overall number of couples who underwent treatment, increased by 1.92 per cent when compared to 2017, up to 18.7 per cent.
In 2018, the number of procedures carried out had fallen by 19.42 per cent over the previous year.
Other main trends in 2018
249 cycles were carried out – 205 at Mater Dei and 44 at St James Hospital – which resulted in 56 pregnancies of whom 10 ended in miscarriage.
None of the couples were foreigners meaning there was no medical tourism in this sector. There were 31 female patients aged 40-42, while the oldest male was in 56-60 age bracket.
In 2018, maternal age was the most important factor with respect to chances of pregnancy with the highest rate being for women aged between 25-28 years.
Obese women had a lower chance of success. A fifth of pregnant females in the Obesity Class I suffered a miscarriage, rising to a third in Class II (more obese), and 100 per cent for Class III (most obese) whereby the only patient suffered a miscarriage.