Record number of births after assisted fertilization – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country

New figures from the Norwegian Directorate of Health show that treatments with Assisted fertilization carried out in 2021 gave rise to 3,279 children born in Norway.

This is the highest number recorded to date.

Anne Forus, senior advisor in the Norwegian Directorate of Health, thinks the most “conspicuous” with the numbers is the increase in the number of children who have been created with the help of donor sperm.

From 2020 to 2021, the number of children born with the help of donor sperm increased from 461 children to 634.

– Who receives this type of treatment?

– They are single women, after all. Then there are also same-sex couples. And then there are also quite a few couples who are not of the same sex, but who need donor sperm.

The figures for the Directorate of Health do not distinguish single women as a separate group. At the same time, Forus says that the professional circles, i.e. the clinics that offer assisted fertilization, point to single women as the group that is increasing the most.

Forus says this is related to a change in the law that came four years ago.

– The changes in the Biotechnology Act in 2020, which allow single women to also have assisted fertilization, are probably part of the reason.

– When the treatment options increase, it is no great surprise that the numbers also go up, says Forus.

– Lowered the threshold

In the period after the change in the law in 2020, fertility clinics experienced a large influx from single women.

One of these was Marthe Sofie (36).

– I have always wanted children. Even though I didn’t have a partner, I still wanted to be a mother.

Marthe Sofie started the process of becoming a parent at the private clinic Spiren in Trondheim in 2021. She first had a couple of rounds with artificial insemination (IUI), without success.

After a round of in vitro fertilization (IVF) She is today the mother of Aksel (10 months).

Marthe Sofie says that she received donor sperm from a sperm bank in Denmark, where the donor is selected by the clinic.

The possibility of being able to carry out the treatment in Norway was “very important” for her, because “it lowered the threshold to start the process”.

– For me, it was important to be able to be close to where I live, and avoid the cost and burden of travelling. I think it would have been some kind of additional barrier. And not least being able to have faster follow-up nearby.

Limitations

Although the figures from the Norwegian Directorate of Health are a record high, there are currently no figures from after 2021.

One of the reasons is the length of a pregnancy.

The total of 14 public and private businesses that deal with assisted fertilization in Norway only report the figures to the Norwegian Directorate of Health when all children who have been born after treatment in a given year have been born.

In addition, there are extensive data sets to be sent in from the clinics and quality assured.

The Directorate of Health also does not have an overview of treatments carried out abroad. There are strict rules for how many families can receive sperm from one donor in Norway (donors’ sperm cannot give rise to children in more than 6 families).

But there is no record of whether sperm from a donor has also been used in other countries.

– We have good control over what happens in Norway and the use of donor sperm by Norwegian businesses. But it is difficult to control use abroad.

– There have been ongoing discussions in the EU about whether there should be a more international donor register. We’ll see how that discussion goes, says Forus.

– Flattened out

Jon Hausken is the general manager of the country’s largest fertility clinic, Klinikk Hausken.

The clinic itself states that over 5,000 children have been born with the help of their experts since 2006.

Hausken believes that one of the reasons why more children are now being born with the help of assisted fertilization is that the methods have improved, so that more treatments are successful.

Another was the change in the law from 2020.

– In 2021, we had a fairly strong upswing in treatments with single ladies. It wasn’t just about legislation, it was also about the pandemic. After the pandemic, people had the money to go private, says Fausken.

However, Jon Hausken says that the number of test tube treatments has leveled off in recent years.

– DIt looks like you have reached a bit of a ceiling in society. It’s not like the infertility patients are just increasing and increasing. In the private context, you have actually seen a slight decline, and people’s finances have probably affected this as well.

Reduced sperm quality

Lise Boeck Jakobsen, chairman of the board of wish child, says they received many inquiries in connection with the change in the law in 2020.

– This was what many had been waiting for. It was an additional burden to travel abroad. Then you traveled abroad and received a treatment that was initially illegal in Norway.

Jakobsen is also concerned that there are several reasons why the scope of assisted fertilization is increasing. She points out that the extent of involuntarily childless people has generally increased in both Norway and Europe in recent years.

– It is said, among other things, that you can experience a declining sperm quality in men. Not many people have an overview of the extent to which it results in several treatments with assisted fertilization, so we would like to see more research on that part.

– Fantastic

Marthe Sofie describes the process of becoming a mother as “easy, but time-consuming”.

– It is something you are not aware of when you start, perhaps. That it doesn’t always work on the first try. And it is a demanding situation for the body when you stand in it alone.

She describes the follow-up along the way as good. Because she went to a private clinic, there was no waiting time for donor sperm either.

– So I felt that once I started, I started right away.

– Do you feel that the change in the law has contributed to normalizing being a single mother?

– Yes, I think so, that there has been more openness about it, and that perhaps there have also been more solo mothers. Because many people feel that it is easier to do so.

Marthe Sofie is now on leave with the son.

– It is… yes. Exciting, demanding, hectic. Fantastic. All at the same time. Many emotions at once. But it is also very enriching. It is very nice to be a mother.