New discriminatory laws for the small percentage of the Victorian population that are medically deemed as infertile came into effect as of 1st January.

What this means is that would be parents, including those people already undergoing IVF, are required to have child protection order and police record checks to ensure that they will be suitable parents.

People undergoing IVF constitute a small minority of people who wish to pursue the great dream of having children.  Yet they are penalised and need to be approved by bureaucrats before they can attempt conception. Its a case where the laws are targeted at a minority.

IVF patient, Carol Poole, has recently been approved to recommence IVF after running through hoops to get Police Record Checks and Child Protection Order Checks to the clinic in time so she can start another cycle.

While the whole process annoys her, she seriously doubts that the Government would have passed these laws if  they were applied to a larger number of the population.

“Imagine the widespread government backlash if the laws were applied to every person who intended on becoming a parent. I don’t imagine it would be a very popular government policy. If the laws were applied to everyone, I’m tipping their would be massive public outrage and the Victorian government would lose their next election.”

“The laws are a joke. No other country in the world requires this level of regulation in relation to IVF. The laws are clearly discriminatory,” she said.

IVF Laws Discriminate the Minority is a post from: The IVF Club

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Recent news coverage has focused on high rates of multiple births in IVF.  More attention than usual has dominated the news due to Nadya Suleman, otherwise known as Octomum,  who gave birth to eight babies at the same time after having had IVF treatment.  A Queensland couple have also sparked the debate with women giving birth to a set of twins after already having had 2 sets of quadruplets.

The impact of the news coverage has been to condemn IVF clinics and specialists. In truth, the majority of clinics only recommend implanting a single embryo.  This is because multiple births can be more risky for both the mother and the infants than a single birth. For example, the risk of cerebral palsy is six times higher for twins, and twenty times higher for triplets. Infant mortality rates are also higher.  Multiple births can also be a risk to the mother.  Apart from the risk of high blood pressure, there is an increased risk of miscarriage and premature birth. If an infant is born too prematurely, breathing and feeding complications may arise.

Changing the Medicare rebate in Australia has now sparked concerns that there will be a two for the price on one mentality with more women rushing to have more embryos implanted so as to increase their chances of success.  Whilst it is easy to look at these statistics, a greater issue may be the fact that increasingly women are delaying motherhood until well into their thirties where the chance of conception is lower.  A women’s biological clock may just give greater clues to an apparent rush on transferring more than one embryo.

IVF and Multiple Births is a post from: The IVF Club

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An innovative step forward in IVF procedures is offering fresh hope to thousands of women who struggle to conceive. According to the outcome of the latest trial in Britain, the new test significantly increases the possibility of a female achieving a successful conception.

British scientists assert that they’ve developed an embryo screening procedure which triples the likelihood of a woman successfully achieving pregnancy and giving birth.

The embryos are examined to rule out any potential hereditary abnormalities, which are a risk predominantly among older women. The screening checks chromosomes in the embryo and only those embryos with the maximum possibility of success are used.

Experts claim the technology will be up and running in 2-3 years. Being an “older” women myself, I for one think it is not soon enough.  Bring it on!

Breakthrough in IVF Technology is a post from: The IVF Club

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It’s official – my husband and I have passed our police record check and we can now start IVF.

The words on the National Police Certificate dated 4th September read “At the data of issue there are no disclosable court outcomes recorded.” There are five interesting features about this report:

1. The report arrived within a week of being submitted – not the 10 week delay that I reported in a previous blog.

2. That the word “disclosable” is not even a word since it keeps coming up as an error in my spell checker.

3. That I paid $64 for two certificates that state “At the date of issue there are no disclosable court outcomes recorded.” How insulting is that. The report offers the possibility that maybe in the future, I could be in court.

4. This report really it is only relevant for the past, not the future. I could go out tomorrow, commit a terrible crime and quite possibly continue undertaking IVF. No one would be any the wiser.

5. Any other couple who conceive naturally are not subject to getting checked out. Apart from this being discriminatory, it also is a breach of a normal human right which is to bear children.

Police Checks for Would Be Parents is a post from: The IVF Club

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