It's time to give birth to a new era of fertility treatment in Ontario

Québec marks two years of success for fertility funding

TORONTO, Aug. 15, 2012 /CNW/ - On the second anniversary of Québec providing public funding for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, an advocacy organization for fertility patients is launching a nine-month campaign to convince the Ontario government to introduce a similar program.

Conceivable Dreams - The OHIP for IVF Coalition, is calling for the Ontario government to implement IVF funding in Ontario, coupled with a single embryo transfer policy in most cases.

"The findings of the government's own expert panel, as well as the experience in Québec and in countries as diverse as Australia, Belgium and Sweden, demonstrate that IVF funding helps couples while benefiting society as a whole," said Joanne Horibe, co-founder of Conceivable Dreams. "Nine months from now, the 2013 Ontario Budget will be the opportunity to give birth to a new era in fertility treatment for tens of thousands of Ontarians who deserve assistance."

An estimated one in six Canadian couples of child rearing age has difficulty conceiving. Infertility can have multiple causes and is recognized as a medical condition by the World Health Organization.

"On August 5, 2010, Québec took the lead in Canada for IVF funding," said Dr. Ellen Greenblatt, Head of the Division of Reproductive Sciences at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital and an advocate for public funding in Ontario. "Québec's goal was to help couples who could not conceive children without financial and medical assistance, while at the same time reducing the number of high-risk, high-cost multiple pregnancies resulting from multiple-embryo transfers. It has been a resounding success on both fronts."

Today, the "father" of IVF funding in Québec, Health Minister Dr. Yves Bolduc, is often stopped in the streets by patients who thank him for enabling them to have children by removing the financial barriers to treatment.  As important as it is to meet the moral imperative of assisting those challenged by infertility to fulfill their dreams, Dr. Bolduc has publicly stated that producing healthier babies, reducing demands on the health system and saving money for taxpayers are also essential reasons why funding IVF is not only the right thing to do, it's also the smart thing.

"The Québec program has demonstrated that public funding of fertility treatment works," said Marie-Claude Blais, vice-president at ACIQ, an infertile couples association in Québec who played a key role in the introduction of a funding program in that province.  "It gives infertile individuals the means to have children; the program has drastically cut the rate of multiple births and produces healthier babies; and as a result our health system is saving money."

"Nine months from now, Premier Dalton McGuinty, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Health Minister Deb Matthews will have the chance to make dreams come true for thousands of people, while saving taxpayers' dollars," concluded Ms. Horibe. "I sincerely hope that all Ontarians who are impacted by infertility, men and women alike, will have reason to stand up and cheer the government's decision in March 2013."

SOURCE: Conceivable Dreams

Dorenda McNeil, Counsel Public Affairs Inc.
[email protected] 
416-920-0716, ext. 216