Massive sending of prevention messages, creation of a site dedicated to reproductive health, development of egg freezing, better management of certain female pathologies… The government plan against infertility marks a turning point in the recognition of a subject long relegated to the private sphere. It remains to be seen how these announcements will translate into practice for the millions of French people concerned.
Get out of “if I had known”: inform before it is too late
It’s a figure that says a lot about the silent unease surrounding infertility: nearly 3.3 million French people would be affected today. Behind these statistics, often long, bumpy journeys, marked by waiting, failures, sometimes guilt. Faced with this reality, the government has decided to change course.
This Thursday, February 5, the executive unveiled its national plan to combat infertilitypromised for a long time by Emmanuel Macron. His stated ambition: better inform young adultsbefore biological time suddenly reminds them. Because if parenthood plans are built later and later, the body does not always follow.
“This approach aims to strengthen the power to act of young adults, without injunction or social pressure, and will therefore logically contain information on sexual health and contraception.specifies the Ministry of Health in its press release.
A message that the Minister of Health, Stephanie Ristwanted to clarify:
“The role of politics is not to say whether we should have children or at what age: what we must avoid is continuing to hear “If I had known””
The objective is clear: to allow everyone to make informed choices, without prescribing a life trajectory, but without letting ignorance decide for individuals.
SMS, website, oocytes: concrete measures to act upstream
To translate this desire into action, the government plan is structured around several strong measurescombining prevention, information and improvement of healthcare provision.
From the end of summer, all French people aged 29 will receive an information messageintended to raise awareness of fertility issues and the impact of age on reproductive capacities. An unprecedented gesture, assumed, which intends to reach widely, without stigmatizing.
At the same time, a website dedicated to reproductive health and fertility will soon be put online, with educational content accessible to the general public. A tool designed as a gateway to reliable information, far from approximations and anxiety-provoking speeches.
In the medical field, the government is also announcing
better management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)a pathology that is still too often underdiagnosed, yet responsible for ovulation disorders in many women.
Another major lever: the development of
egg freezingwith the announced opening of several dozen new establishments in the territory, in order to reduce inequalities of access and waiting times.
Finally, a vast national communications campaign must be deployed by the end of the year, to permanently place the issue of fertility in the public debate.
“We are entering a new era.” : a strong signal for patients, but only a start
On the side of patient associations, the announcement of the plan was greeted with a mixture of hope and caution. THE
BAMP collectivewhich supports people facing infertility and medically assisted procreation journeys, sees this as a major symbolic turning point.
“We are moving into a new era, we have never been at this level of consideration of the subjects of fertility and infertility”declared its president, Virginie Rio (BAMP collective) in the columns of 20 minutes.
But enthusiasm does not erase lucidity. The association recalls that this plan is only a first step and that “a lot of work “remains to be accomplished to concretely improve the management of infertility in France, both medically, psychologically and socially.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health announced that it wanted to strengthen its action on perinatal health, in a particularly worrying context. France continues to have maternal and infant mortality rates higher than those of many European countries. The stated objective is to “create a consensus on the possible causes” — what about the closures of local maternity wards, the understaffing of caregivers, etc.? — in order to reverse these alarming indicators.
A public word that opens
With this plan, infertility ceases to be a blind spot in health policies. Without promising a miracle, the government is sending a signal: that of institutional recognition of an intimate experience shared by millions of people. It now remains to transform these words into lasting actions, commensurate with the expectations, journeys and hopes it has given rise to.