COVID-19 pandemic puts Greece’s In Vitro Fertilisation practices on hold

With Greece’s population shrinking almost as fast at the economy during a near decade-long crisis, a slow recovery halted in its tracks by the COVID-19 Coronavirus, the hopes that In Vito Fertilization (IVP) would help have also been stymied.

Dr. Vaggelis Sakkas and his small team of IVF specialists made the decision to temporarily close their practice, the Gyn Care IVF center at REA Maternity Hospital in central Athens, citing coronavirus fears.

“Unfortunately, we have stopped everything,” Sakkas told reporter Fahrinisa Campana of Quartz in a phone interview. “The IVF unit, given that it’s not an emergency service—it’s not a matter of life and death—can wait.” But for how long, nobody yet knows.

That was a setback, for now, to help spur population to grow or keep it from shrinking even faster in Greece after many couples decided not to have children, or fewer children, during the crisis years that began in 2010.

Greece’s population has been falling since 2011, the first year a negative birthrate was recorded since 1944, Stefanos Chandakas, obstetrician-gynecologist, founder and CEO of HOPEgenesis, a Greek non-profit organization that addresses the issue of low birth rates in Greece said in December 2019 at the American College of Greece in Athens.

The year 2017 saw 88,553 births and 124,501 deaths in Greece, said Chandakas, who warned that “Greece’s population is expected to reach 8 million people by 2050, based on conservative estimates,” falling from 10,451,862 people now.

The doctor emphasized that Greece still ranks low in adopting supportive maternity, family and fertility policies, and stressed that the main objective should be creating a favorable environment to support young couples of childbearing age.

Some 36 percent of Greece’s population will be over 65 years old by 2050, up from 6 pct in the 1970s and 18-20 percent of the current population as declining demographics impact the labor force, burden the insurance network, and threaten the viability of the pension system.

With medical teams around the world switching toward treating COVID-19 patients, other procedures are being sidelined, including IVF, which had been a pivotal practice for Greece.

IVF is often a time-sensitive treatment. Without a clear timeframe, stopping or postponing treatment can be a devastating loss, said the report.

“The coronavirus just underlines the nature of the problem, which (existed) before and is going to continue,” said Sakkas.

He said when he had to tell his patients he was halting treatments, it was difficult especially with the unknown factor of COVID-19 affecting pregnant women.

“There are no studies, there is no evidence about what happens if you get (COVID-19) in the beginning of a pregnancy,” he explained, with research still unclear although some women with the virus have conceived children who were clear.

So far there are no known negative effects on the baby if the mother is infected during the second or third trimester, but for women seeking to get pregnant now, there’s no guaranteed protection for baby or mother in the case of an infection. Sakkas doesn’t want to take unnecessary risks, he told the news site.

Days after closing the center, he received the first sign that the coronavirus might have a more lasting effect on IVF than he first thought, telling a patient whose pregnancy results came back negative to try again when the virus subsides.

“I tried to encourage her and (to) tell her, ‘You do not have to surrender, and you have to continue in any case,’” Sakkas explained. His patient told him while she would like to try IVF again she wasn’t sure if he would by the time the pandemic ends.

“So, it’s something that frightens everybody,” he said.

With so many Greeks putting off having children during the economic crisis, the average age of women trying has risen, only to run into the new virus crisis.

“Many women said, ‘Okay, let’s wait to have another job, let’s wait until the situation is more stable.’ So they waited and waited and waited and they arrived at 40, and they are having other problems,’” Sakkas said.

Seraphim Seferiades, a Professor of Political Science at the Panteion University in Athens said the insecurity patients wishing to conceive in Greece isn’t only because of COVID-19, which has exacerbated it.

The coronavirus just underlines the nature of the problem, which [existed] before and is going to continue,” he also said.

Read more at thenationalherald.com

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: pixabay.com