The program for in vitro fertilization (IVF) was stopped in 2024. The reason: the Ministry of Finance no longer allocated funds, only the ongoing procedures for the 10,000 files planned for 2023 being financed, according to the Minister of the Family, Natalia Intotero.
In vitro fertilization program, without funding in 2024 – Photo Pexels
The Minister of the Family, Natalia Intotero, said that no new requests are being received for the IVF program and that another 14,000 files declared eligible in 2023 do not have the funding secured, reports G4Media.
“For the FIV program, the Ministry of Finance did not approve us for this year, it approved us to settle what is outstanding for 2023, the 10,000 files provided for in the government decision”stated Natalia Intotero, according to the quoted source.
Natalia Intotero explained that it takes quite a long time from the declaration of an eligible file until the medical procedures are completed.
“In 2022, the start was made in the autumn and only in October 2023 we had the first birth. Now we have about 100 births”added the Minister of the Family.
In fact, last year 24,000 requests were declared eligible, but the Government decision approved for last year provides for the settlement of only 10,000, says Intotero.
“We stopped the submission of files and restarted the entire legislative process for a new Government decision”mentions the minister.
The Declic community launched a petition to resume the program, it has been signed by over 7,500 people so far.
“Infertility affects a large number of couples in Romania. The World Health Organization estimates that one in five couples suffer from infertility and shows an incidence of 15% of all couples in the world. The costs of an in vitro fertilization are very high, far exceeding the amount allocated in the year 2023 per couple, but it was a breath of fresh air for all couples and single women who were in the situation of not being able to conceive a child naturally. And in 2020, the fewest children of the last century were born in Romania; in 2021, from the last 130 years; in the first semester of 2023, the lowest number in the last 145 years“, says Carina Ioana Georgescu, the initiator of the petition.
The program run by the Romanian state offered 15,000 lei to those eligible. The money was divided as follows: a voucher worth 5,000 lei was intended for the purchase of specific medicines, and the second voucher, worth 10,000 lei, was for the payment of medical procedures. But the costs for these procedures are sometimes double this amount.
Since the start of the national IVF program, more than 2,400 pharmacies and almost 2,200 clinics have been made for medical procedures, according to Euronews.
