INTERVIEW
The opening of the PMA to all women, flagship measure of the bill bioethics, got a first green light Wednesday evening in the National Assembly, thanks to the vote of the special commission. It validated Article 1, which extends medically assisted procreation (LDC) to lesbian couples and single women.
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But this future law is far from being limited to this measure. Heard on 3 September by MEPs, Joëlle Belaisch-Allart defends the self-preservation of oocytes. "If, around age 35, childless women could keep their oocytes, then only those who did not meet the one with whom to have a child would be concerned," she reassures.
Propose self-preservation in hospitals
According to her, such a measure would boost the birth rate in France. "Women do not know that there is a real risk of falling from fertility with age and that they need to be able to do this conservation," she explains, adding that in France, this method is allowed only in a few specific cases, such as cancer cases. "What we professionals would like is that in all hospitals, public and private, self-preservation is automatically included."
A later sentimental commitment
For the gynecologist, the PMA - and the debates it provokes - is also the victim of many prejudices. Women wishing to use the PMA are not "careerists who do not want to do their children in time," she recalls. "More than 80% of them have not met in time with whom to have a child.Men want not to engage too much and they are not quite aware of the fall in fertility with 'age".
According to Joëlle Belaisch-Allart, even women are not always aware of this drop in fertility, from 35 years. "We see too many forty-year-old women arriving at the center. All we can offer them is the oocyte donation. However, there are not enough oocyte donations in France, "she denounces.
To compensate for this lack of oocytes, the gynecologist believes that self-preservation is, moreover, a solution to consider. "If these women had a child without using their self-preserved oocytes, they will be able to donate their eggs," she says.