- Birth rate has plummeted in Australia
- The average age to have a baby has increased
Australia should implement a national fertility care plan to bolster the country’s IVF services amid a falling birth rate.
The idea stems from a review by former health minister Greg Hunt and public health expert Rachel Swift published on Sunday as part of FSANZ 2024, the annual conference of fertility and IVF experts in Perth.
Its 34 recommendations included the need for uniform laws for the assisted reproductive technology (ART) and IVF sectors across all states, territories and the Commonwealth, as well as the development of a national fertility plan.
Fertility Society president Petra Wale said a national plan would remove some financial barriers to fertility treatments and equalize access to services for Australians regardless of which state they live in.
“If it was a consistent approach, companies could focus on giving patients the care they need and helping them become parents, which is really the ultimate goal,” he told AAP.
‘Look around your group of 10 friends and one or two will have difficulty conceiving.
‘A national approach to fertility would enable your friends – or you, if you are one of those six (the statistic of people suffering from infertility) – to realise the dream of having a family and an affordable fertility rate.’
Furthermore, the review highlighted the need for a single national registry and gene bank for donors and donor-conceived individuals.
Australia should implement a national fertility care plan to bolster the country’s IVF services amid a plummeting birth rate (file image)
Australia’s birth rate has more than halved over the past 60 years, from 3.5 births per woman in 1960 to 1.63 in 2022 (file image)
This registry would provide a centralized system for tracking and accessing critical genetic information, ensuring that medical professionals and individuals were alerted to important hereditary conditions.
Australia’s birth rate has more than halved over the past 60 years, from 3.5 births per woman in 1960 to 1.63 in 2022.
This decline in the fertility rate is associated with a lower overall birth rate and an increase in the average age of the mother over the last half century, from 25.4 years in 1971 to 31.9 years in 2022.
According to the study, the increasing average age of new mothers and technological advances will increase the number of children born through assisted reproduction techniques and IVF over the next decade.
There are over 40 different laws regulating ART and IVF practices across Australia.
In 2021, 20,690 babies were born in Australia and New Zealand via IVF.