In response to declining fertility rates in Scotland, the Conservatives have asked the government to consider “freezing oocytes” [1] for all women in Scotland. “Such opportunities are important and are increasingly becoming the norm throughout the world,” said Miles Briggs, one of the proposal’s initiators.
Over the past five years, the Scottish government has invested £28 million in infertility treatment. Female patients can be offered up to three cycles of treatment.
The Conservatives’ new proposal comes just when the fertility observatory at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) revealed last week that older women are being exploited by in-vitro fertilization clinics “trading on hope”, despite a low success rate.
[1] Egg freezing involves collecting a woman’s oocytes, freezing them and then thawing them later on if medically assisted reproduction treatment is used.
The Scotsman, Kevan Christie (27/04/2019)