IVF wait lists soar

Irish couples seeking vital fertility treatment from specialist clinics abroad now face 12-month delay

IRISH couples using egg donation are facing up to a year-long wait to have the specialist fertility treatment in foreign clinics.

And according to the National Infertility Support and Information Group (NISIG), they have seen a 60% spike in calls to their 24-hour support line during the pandemic.

While IVF clinics are now opening across Ireland, patients who were planning to use a donor egg or a donor embryo abroad could be facing longer waiting times due to travel restrictions.

Many couples or single people looking to start a family using this form of IVF opt to use donor eggs or embryos from specialist clinics in countries such as the Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Spain.

In some cases the couples are treated abroad and in other cases donor eggs or embryos using donor eggs are flown into Ireland where the treatment is carried out in Irish clinics. ‘It’s an emotional time for people,’ said Sarah-Jane Ryan, spokesperson for the National Infertility Support and Information Group.

‘The waiting lists have crept up for the more complex type of IVF with the use of a donor simply because we don’t have a big pool of donors in Ireland.

‘Because of non-anonymous donor eggs, a lot of eggs are brought in from specialist clinics abroad.

‘There haven’t been flights in and out of those countries, and all the different restrictions around Covid, so there is quite a waiting list now in a lot of the clinics. I’ve heard from one clinic that the waiting list is up to 12 months.’ In some cases, couples had been preparing to fly out to these countries to have embryos transferred but this process has been delayed.

Ms Ryan added: ‘Couples have embryos in places like Prague and they haven’t been able to get back for months. It is happening for loads of couples as the Czech Republic is very popular. A lot of flights are only reopening in the last week or so.’

According to Ms Ryan, couples waiting to fly abroad for embryo transfer have already lost around four or five months in the process.

She said: ‘It has certainly pushed out the time frame for a lot of couples. For a lot of couples in their 40s, their time is ticking and they don’t want to be having babies when they’re nearly 50.’

She added that many people coming to the NISIG for support during the pandemic are planning on conceiving their families through donor eggs.

‘It is quite common but people just don’t talk about it,’ Ms Ryan continued.

‘A lot of people who meet their partner late in life have concerns over the quality of their eggs or can have genetic issues so it’s a great option for people to have.

‘We would have a lot of people who’ve got in touch with NISIG who have chosen to go abroad for their treatment and that happens for lots of different reasons.

‘Now there’s quarantine restrictions, there’s Covid testing restrictions, there’s quarantine coming back into Ireland. There are a lot of new factors that couples have to consider when planning their IVF abroad which wouldn’t have been the case before.’

Ms Ryan revealed that the NISIG has seen many distressed couples in Zoom support sessions, especially people who feel their chance to have a family is slipping away.

‘It has been very upsetting. The choice has been taken away from some people because maybe they had a cut-off time in their head or as a couple they agreed this is the age that we stop and that age is approaching,’ she said.

‘They feel like they’ve lost their chance.

‘We’ve people coming to us asking if travelling for IVF is deemed as an essential trip – it is totally essential. Of course it is.’