Male infertility is marginally bigger issue for couples using IVF than female fertility, according to a report.
Male-factor infertility accounted for 32.35 per cent of cases while female-factor infertility stood at 31.76 per cent. In 18.24 per cent of cases, both had fertility problems, while in 17.65 per cent of cases the infertility could not be explained.
Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne said Malta was in line with international trends.
While medical professionals were aware that male and female infertility rates were practically equal, he said, public perception often associated infertility with women.
The figures emerged in the 2014 annual report on trends and figures of fertility treatments drawn up by the Embryo Protection Authority that regulates the law on IVF.
170
- the number of IVF cycles that resulted in 159 embryo transfers and 49 pregnancies last year.
The report, seen by this newspaper, notes that last year there were 170 cycles of IVF: 142 cycles were self-funded while 28 were government-funded. Unlike this year, when government started offering IVF at State-owned hospital Mater Dei, last year’s government-funded cycles were held in private hospitals.
Most women referred for IVF last year were between the ages of 33 and 36, followed by those between 37 and 40. Out of the 170 cycles, 129 made use of fresh gametes, that is oocytes (female eggs) and sperm – whereas 39 cycles used thawed gametes (that had been previously frozen). Two cycles had combined fresh and thawed eggs and sperm.
There were 159, or 93 per cent, embryo transfers that resulted in 49 pregnancies – making up 31 per cent of the transfers. Of the pregnancies, 36 were from the fresh cycles, 12 were from thawed cycles and one was from a combined cycle.
This meant that thawed cycles had a 30.7 per cent success rate, while fresh cycles 27.9 per cent.
There were 30 babies born from IVF cycles carried out between July 2013 and March 2014 and these included a set of twins.
In the first six months of this year there had been 141 cycles, 81 of which took place at Mater Dei Hospital, Mr Fearne said.
“As a father of three lovely children I can understand that in many cases children make a family complete. IVF offers this opportunity to a number of couples who would otherwise be unable to have children... We are currently looking at the Embryo Protection Act and how it is working in practice with the aim of improving it and making it more inclusive,” he said as he reiterated that he had appointed a committee to examine the law and look into options such as opening it up to same-sex couples.