Phase 3, couples who resort to fertilization increase and are + 20%

 "The lockdown increased the desire for parenting. Between mid-June and mid-July, in Italy, we saw an average 20% increase in couples who turned to assisted fertilization centers compared to the same period last year." Antonino Guglielmino, president of the Italian Society of Human Reproduction (Siru) and recently appointed Italian delegate within the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (Eshre), explained this to Ansa.
    The boom in requests that is now not only due to all the couples who wanted, and could not, take this path in the months of the lockdown. In fact, "on one hand, the fear of new closures for possible second waves of infections and, on the other, a greater desire for family that in many couples the pandemic has aroused", explains the expert. An indicative aspect is the request to carry out fertilization cycles also in August, "period in which they normally stop". A need also dictated by the need to dispose of the arrears that were accumulated in the three months of closure due to the Covid-19 emergency, during which approximately 30,000-35,000 treatments were not carried out.
    Another novelty of assisted fertilization in Phase 3 concerns the progress made towards digitization, which were also preserved in the post lockdown. "Much of the psychological and genetic preparatory consultancy, in addition to the discussion meetings for informed consent - continued Guglielmino - was carried out online during the pandemic. But 40% of couples continue to prefer it even now that the centers have reopened ".