Infertility treatments have been free of charge in Hungary since 2016.Continue reading
We need to know our own body, our own gifts, because there are processes that cannot be reversed as we age, said the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior at a press conference held on the occasion of Fertility Awareness Week in Budapest on Monday. Bence Rétvári stressed that the event, held between April 7 and 14, is also important to raise awareness on the issue of childbearing.
The State Secretary noted that people intending to have children often receive contradictory information. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that everyone, even in childhood, should have the information they need to have children, especially about how their age and lifestyle affect them.
Bence Rétvári recounted that in recent years, the government had been working to ensure that as much information as possible was available to everyone. This is why the website vagyottgyermekekert.hu was created, where much information on childbearing and conception can be found, and where scientifically verified professional content, articles, and videos are available on both natural and artificial conception.
The politician pointed out that
the state has recently taken over the whole support of infertile couples, and that the number of children born to infertile couples has increased.
While in 2018, before the state became involved, an average of 5,000-5,700 couples per year had access to infertility treatment, this number has now exceeded 10,000. The number of children born through IVF had increased from around 1,450 to an average of well over 2,000. The state’s help, for example by making medicines free of charge, has greatly contributed to this increase in numbers, Mr. Rétvári emphasized.
In recent years, four infertility outpatient clinics have been opened in Budapest, Miskolc, Nyíregyháza (both in northeastern Hungary), and Szombathely (western Hungary), and the government plans to open four more in the future,
Rétvári announced.
He called the Fertility Awareness Week an event where participants can ask experts questions, and this is important because infertility affects one in seven couples in Hungary. At the press conference, the organizers said that
although around 44% of young people feel informed about having children, nearly 80% of them are actually not.
They also pointed out that although an increasing number of women are planning to have children after the age of 35 or even 40, the chances of conceiving at this age are significantly reduced.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Pexels
