Italy legalized eggs donation but still continues to buy cells in Ukraine

Not long ago, Italy has joined the list of countries where egg donation is permitted. IVF with donor eggs is the perfect solution to the infertility problem for women who for example can carry but can’t conceive a baby. Also, there are many cases when a woman having crossed the line of childbearing age gave birth to a healthy baby using IVF procedure with donor oocytes. Donor egg is taken from a healthy woman under 30 years old, fertilized with the sperm of infertile woman’s husband. After that, embryo is transferred into the uterus of the infertile patient. Despite the urgent need for such a procedure (each 5^th couple in the world is infertile) law of most European countries ban surrogacy and egg donation. Modern reproductive medicine has been developing rapidly and is in great demand therefore some states start to reconsider legitimate attitude concerning this issue. Thus Italian government recently lifted the ban on the egg donation procedure in Italy. Now every Italian of 29 years old can "share" her healthy eggs in order to help infertile couple to become parents. Since, Italians who have faced with the childless problem will not have to go abroad where it’s legal in order to carry out the IVF program with the donor eggs. But all are not hunters that blow the horn. Donation was allowed, but the question of cells lack arose. In Italy oocyte donation is carried out on a voluntary basis. It means donors receive any money for their own biological material. That is why not many women agree to risk own health for free. Due to the acute shortage of female germ cells on a par with the high demand for them, Italian clinics buy female gametes in other countries. Thus, for example, many European countries buy eggs in Ukraine to conduct IVF with a frozen donor oocytes at home. Italy is no exception! Nevertheless a lot of patients go to Ukraine, having the opportunity to go through the IVF with donor eggs at home. Why? Because the success rate is much higher in programs where doctors use fresh cells (in comparison with the work with frozen eggs). Female germ cells are large and contain water. So after their cooling (in particular, freezing) crystals are formed and distort integrity of gametes. As a result, due to the cell homeostasis disturbance most part of biological material cannot be used for the fertilization. Also it can be cells’ defects which are not visible during transplantation. Such degeneration of genetic material can significantly affect health condition of child in future. Chairman of American community of Reproductive Medicine states: "Although analysis of literature shows that cryopreservation technique is effective for women who need it for medical reasons we cannot use it widely to plan pregnancy".

But let’s return to sunny Italy. The state tries it’s best to help citizens in the "fertility" question and make at least some sort of contribution to the reproductive medicine.

Thus young Italians can use the social egg freezing program. It is needed just to freeze own healthy eggs at a young age, and as a result patient will be able to carry out the IVF procedure, at any age, using own eggs of a good quality. If Italian has faced with the infertility problem and there is no own frozen eggs relatives can help. Gamete crossing is a volunteer donation of eggs by female relatives of the infertile women. Thus, for example, sister can give her female gametes to her cousin, so that she could complete the IVF program. Well, if there are no frozen or related eggs, woman can fall back upon the egg sharing program’s help. This program involves use of the biological material remaining after the IVF programs of another woman. That is, when a woman goes through the IVF and after the procedure some eggs remain, she can share them with another infertile patient.

As you can see, Italy offers its infertile women certain assistance. But, meanwhile, the majority of them go abroad for the surrogacy and egg donation. According to the unofficial statistics, one Ukrainian clinic for reproductive medicine welcomes more than 30 infertile couples from Italy each month. All they use surrogacy or egg donation programs. The price is lower than, for example, in America. In addition there is a guarantee for the procedure’s success and high performance level. What more could one ask for?! Therefore, while Italy and other European countries lift bans and limits citizens to use assisted methods of reproductive medicine, others, such as Ukraine, India, Russia, actively develop medical tourism and help infertile couples from all over the world.