43 years. This is the age limit for claiming medically assisted procreation (PMA), reimbursed by social security in France. Some women, approaching this deadline and already engaged in this journey, have thus experienced confinement as a loss of opportunity for a pregnancy project, or even as an outright obligation to abandon it.
Olivier Véran, Minister of Health, loosened the noose on Wednesday evening in Parliament. There is indeed announced that the PMA will indeed be reimbursed to women who have exceeded the age limit for care, following the suspension of their approach, and this because of the cessation of medical assistance activities during procreation during the two and a half months of confinement.
"I do not see how we could not make a gesture towards these families and reimburse the management of PMA insofar as it would be deferred for a few weeks or even a few months if necessary," he told during a hearing by the Senate Social Affairs Committee. "I answer you without having arbitration or without having discussed it around me, but at least it will have the value of a ministerial decision," said Olivier Véran, in response to senator (PS) Michelle Meunier. This measure only applies to "families benefiting from an LDC journey in France", added the Minister.
"A fair decision"
"Thank you Michelle Meunier! It is good to see some of our fights succeed! Thanks to your commitment for women, ”reacted the Bamp! Collective, an association of patients and ex-patients of the PMA. “The question had been asked from the start of confinement. Until then, it had remained unanswered, recalls Deborah Schouhmann, perinatal therapist who accompanies, among other things, couples on the course of PMA. This is wonderful news and a fair decision for equal opportunities. These women did not choose to stop their treatment and have nothing to do with the closure of the centers. Some of my patients had given up taking this route for financial reasons. It is a ray of hope that comes back, ”she rejoices.
In a note for the month of May, the Biomedicine Agency was preparing the gradual recovery from the 11th, also synonymous with the waiting list. “As the loss of chance of procreating is not the same for all couples, it will be necessary to prioritize certain treatments. The working group, in collaboration with learned societies and patient associations, has established a list of priorities to help medically assisted procreation centers in this delicate process, ”explains the document. In the first row, people with cancer whose treatment is toxic for fertility or those who for age reasons risk having their chances greatly reduced if the wait is prolonged.
As for the PMA for all, authorizing single women and couples of women to access these procreation techniques, voted at first reading in the Senate in February, debates should resume in July in the National Assembly.
