In Lithuania, more and more older women apply for assisted reproduction: 69-year-old patients have to answer politely

According to the laws of Lithuania, the age limits until which women can undergo assisted reproduction are not defined. According to G. Bogdanskienė, in Spain, Estonia, Latvia the limit is 50 years.

“First of all, the question arises from the interests of the child. If, for example, 55 applies now, she would give birth at 56, when the child goes to school, the mother will be 63, so will she have time to raise the child?” – asks the doctor.

“When a 69-year-old woman came, I thought maybe she came because of menopause. Says: “No, because of the children.” I politely told her to go to a cardiologist to see if her heart could handle the pregnancy. I politely declined after that,” she shares about the incident.

G. Bogdanskienė emphasizes that everything is fine if a woman is able to give birth at a decent age, but at that age donor eggs are already needed, and, according to her, there is a problem with them in Lithuania.

Egg donors must be anonymous, cannot donate to relatives, and do not receive any compensation for such donation.

“There are none of those donors, there are none of those in need, we work with Estonia or Latvia, but there is such discrimination between public and private medicine.

Private ones cannot import donor eggs, while public ones can, although the licenses are the same, which means our hands are tied again for work,” – why older women usually need to be referred to state clinics or abroad, she explains.

Thus, the head of the fertility clinic says that in Lithuania, women who want assisted fertilization using donor eggs can only undergo tests and prepare for the procedure, but it can only be done in state clinics or abroad.

Experts believe that this is a loophole in the law, and the ministry replies: the age is specified in the law

The director of the Family Planning and Sexual Health Association, Esmeralda Kuliešytė, also admits that this is a loophole in the law and it should be corrected.

“It is necessary to make a sub-constitutional act, then explain in that act how it should be if the age is older or younger. Also, age is not the only thing that matters.

For example, social status, now the state compensates part of it, but it may turn out that it will be necessary to pay something, this again violates rights, because it may be available to the rich, but to the poor,” she points out loopholes in the law.

As the news portal tv3.lt previously wrote, assisted fertilization in Lithuania cannot be done even by unmarried women.

“Women read all kinds of cases when they give birth there over sixty and then they think: ‘Why can’t I?’ Then a person must have that legal document and see why they can’t or can,” asserts E. Kuliešytė.

In the answer provided by the Ministry of Health to the news portal tv3.lt, it is stated that the age limits are still defined. However, the defined age limit indicates that up to a few years of age, assisted reproduction can be financed for a woman, and not until a few years of age that it can be performed on the patient in general.

“The budget of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund (PSDF) pays for assisted fertilization services when a woman is no older than 42 years old and has one of the following conditions: partners are infertile, preimplantation genetic diagnostics is required in the cases specified in the Procedure Description“, the ministry’s reply reads.

Offers to freeze eggs: how much does it cost?

An obstetrician-gynecologist says that women in Lithuania who want to have children at an older age should think about it in advance and freeze their eggs.

“If a woman freezes at 36 and tries to get pregnant at 45, her eggs will be much younger, and their quality will be significantly better.

If you are a 40-year-old woman, only 1 out of 6 have such very good eggs, the others already have chromosomal changes due to age, which is why they are of poor quality”, – what happens to a woman’s eggs over time, the specialist explains.

According to her, the removal of eggs from the body in Lithuania can cost 1,200 euros. If only they are frozen, not the embryo, women can pay another 600 euros for freezing the eggs. He adds that 65 euros per month must be paid for egg storage, no matter which Lithuanian clinic.