The president of the Fertility Society of Australia, a leading body in the country’s IVF industry, has called for restrictions to Medicare access for women over 45 undergoing fertility treatment.
Why? It’s all about “value for money.”
Professor Michael Chapman, fertility specialist and the president of Fertility Society of Australia, says there is little tax payer value in subsidising the treatment for women over 45. Currently, there is no age limit on accessing Medicare for IVF.
His recommendations come after statistics, released on Friday, showed the fertility treatment outcomes from 2014 – the most recent year for which data is available.
The numbers, Chapman says, don’t add up.
Of 73,598 women who started IVF cycles in 2014, only 19.8 per cent delivered a baby – a 10 per cent improvement from five years earlier.
For women aged 40-44 who received fertility treatment in 2014, the success rate dropped to 6 per cent.
For women aged over 45, the success rate dropped again. To less than one per cent.
It’s certainly a tough concept to put a price on, but Chapman said the cost of a baby per age group can also be broken down by analysing the data.