Fertility practitioners want proposed law fast-tracked

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Fertility practitioners have called on the government to expedite the enactment of the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2023.

The proposed legislation, sponsored by Tororo Woman MP Sarah Achieng Opendi, is still at first reading in Parliament.

One of its aims is to regulate the use of human-assisted reproductive technology.

It is also to provide for designation of health units as fertility centres as well as to provide for the establishment of sperm, oocyte and embryo banks within fertility centres.

The law also aims to regulate the donation and storage of gametes or embryos and provide for the rights and duties of persons involved in human-assisted reproductive technology and rights of children born through via the same technology.

'Field evolving'

Dr Andabati Gonzaga is a senior consultant gynaecologist and fertility expert at Bethany Women's and Family Hospital. He said they are still operating without any form of practice because the bill is lagging behind.

“We do not have a starting platform, especially in the form of legislation. Yet, the field is evolving and people need to know that this is an area that does not involve only one person," he said.

"For example, we are talking about surrogacy now and we are getting to find situations which are very unique to this country in our practice and we cannot refer to any surrogate bill in another country."

Surrogacy is an arrangement where a woman (the surrogate) agrees to become pregnant and carry a baby for another person or couple who will become the child's legal parents after birth.

Gonzaga said there is need to fast-track the proposed law because there is a lot fertility practitioners are missing out on because they do not have guidelines.

Dr Joseph Nsenga, the director of Bethany Women's & Family Hospital, said the infertility rate in Uganda stands at 10 percent, meaning that ten out of 100 couples who are trying to conceive in a space of one year fail.

Of those couples who seek medical assessment , about 40 percent will require in vitro fertilization (IVF) in order to conceive and have children.

“After doing thorough intervention, the only choice they have is in vitro fertilization, yet the main limitation is cost," said Nsenga.

In IVF, eggs are retrieved from a woman's ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory. The resulting embryos are then transferred to the uterus to potentially establish a pregnancy.

Dr Andabati Gonzaga (wearing spectacles) cutting a cake with fellow Bethany Women's and Family Hospital staff at their 12th anniversary on March 29

On average, the cost of IVF treatment is about sh20 million. But this depends on the hormone, sperm profile, and the fertility centre one visits.

Nsenga appealed to the government to offer financial support to couples struggling to conceive through IVF.

He made the call during the 12th anniversary of Bethany Women's and Family Hospital in Luzira last Saturday.

Glowing tributes were paid to the facility for providing quality gynaecology and fertility treatment in the country.

Meanwhile, legislator Opendi said Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2023, which is a private members bill, is ready for its second reading.

“The Committee [on Health] completed its work and the report is available," she said.