Fertility treatments (PMA)
Several options are available for lesbian couples and single women
Fertility treatments (procréation médicalement assistée – PMA – in French) are widely available.
Lesbian couples also have access to PMA procedures, including artificial insemination, in vitro fertilisation and the implantation of frozen donor embryos, and the law recognises parental rights for both women.
Single women can also benefit.
The treatments depend on obtaining the go-ahead from a medical team, which will be based on the likely success of the procedures and the capacity of the person/couple to look after a baby well.
PMA is 100% reimbursed, up to six tries at artificial insemination and up to four attempts at starting a pregnancy in vitro. People may also benefit from authorised absence from work to undertake the procedures, and this should not be taken off paid holiday or pay.
You can find a local fertility centre at this link. While there is no law against this, it is not advised to register with more than one.
A bioethics law also allows wider access to the right to preserve a person’s sperm or eggs (gamete freezing) for future use when fertility generally starts to decrease after the age of 35.
Previously, freezing was only allowed in specific circumstances where reproduction was made impossible by medical reasons, such as in the case of cancer or endometriosis.
The law also set in place a number of age-related restrictions for the purposes of gamete collection. As a result, while sperm collection can be carried out in male donors until they reach age 60, egg collection in female donors can only be performed before the age of 43.
There is an additional restriction for both males and females wishing to self-preserve their gametes for IVF use in the future; in this case, oocyte retrieval for women must occur between the ages of 29 and 37 whereas sperm collection can occur between the ages of 29 and 45.
A donor and the person/couple receiving their gametes remain anonymous to each other, although a legal process does exist by which a child born this way can ask the identity of their biological parent, at age 18 (in which case no legal relationship exists).