Using the word “batching” to describe the women who are put in groups to undergo in vitro fertilisation is insensitive and misleading, according to Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department director Mark Brincat.
In recent weeks, this term has cropped up several times in the IVF debate as it was suggested that women were ‘batched’ together to coincide with the visit of a foreign embryologist who flew in to help local embryologists fertilise eggs from women undergoing IVF.
A couple last week told The Sunday Times they underwent the IVF procedure in the UK because they felt the way things stood, Malta felt “like a farm where doctors are batching women together for breeding day”.
However, Prof. Brincat said that apart from being disparaging, it also showed a misunderstanding of the process.
“We group women because the numbers of those undergoing IVF treatment in Malta are too small to enable the programmes to function otherwise,” he said when contacted.
“This is not a question of convenience or economics, but a means of maximising the chances of these couples to become parents.
“We did not invent grouping, this is practised in localities where the numbers undergoing treatment are so low that you cannot have a continuous IVF programme.”
The two doctors who handle IVF procedures in the country group about 30 to 40 women over a two-week period, three times a year. These numbers were being done on a daily basis in regions the size of Malta in the UK where overall 39,879 underwent 50,687 cycles of treatment in 2008 alone, according to figures by the Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority.
Prof. Brincat pointed out that there were a number of couples who travelled abroad for treatment.
“But I am sure the actual need for IVF is much higher and with appropriate government help many more would use the service. This would make IVF more accessible and in turn make the desired continuous programme feasible,” Prof. Brincat said, adding that most EU countries offered up to three cycles of IVF on their national health service.
Prof. Brincat was asked whether grouping women was leading to a situation where, as happened recently, four sets of triplets – all conceived through IVF – were born prematurely within a month, burdening the already stretched resources at Mater Dei Hospital’s Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.
“What happened is very rare – in fact it’s the first time this has happened in 20 years of IVF in Malta – and even if mothers deliver their babies prematurely, it was very unfortunate they would all gave birth at the same time,” Prof. Brincat said.
Some 20 babies, including high-risk cases, are delivered at Mater Dei on a daily basis.
Prof. Brincat said a similar situation could have been avoided if Malta permitted embryo freezing – as yet the island has no legislation on assisted procreation – as this would make it possible to transfer fewer embryos, in turn reducing the number of multiple births while giving couples a reasonable success rate.
Legislation on assisted procreation has been in the pipeline for years, despite an extensive report drawn up Parliament’s social affairs committee in 2005.
In 2009, a new parliamentary committee was set up tasked with discussing three issues – the eligibility of couples for treatment, the freezing of embryos, and sperm and egg donations.
Its recommendations were released last October and it is now up to the government to draw up a Bill to regulate assisted procreation. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had said this was one of the matters Cabinet had to discuss.
However, the final report is being sent back to the Social Affairs Committee to reopen discussions.
Prof. Brincat said the current discussion on IVF threatened to make the procedure much more difficult and potentially more expensive, less successful and indeed more dangerous than it needed to be.