MUHC Defends McGill IVF Reproductive Centre

Bill 20 places the McGill’s Reproductive Centre, the nations largest public fertility centre at risk, the National Assembly was told as the MUHC defends McGill Reproductive Centre. Under Bill 20 the coverage of costs for artificial insemination would continue, however cuts would be made to the coverage for in-vitro fertilization except in rare cases.

The Centre operated as a private clinic until 2010, when Quebec became one of the first jurisdictions on the continent to cover IVF.

Montreal Gazette

At the National Assembly the MUHC directors argued the bill would make make access much more difficult for many families and could restrict the clinic’s  activities below a threshold of 1,000 IVF cycles per year, which may make the center no longer be viable.

If the centre is forced to close, “we (would) lose, first of all, access to patients. We (would) lose a very rich teaching environment and we also lose our research program,”

Dr. Ewa Sidorowicz,MUHC’s associate director general of medical affairs

Yearly activities of the MUHC’s Reproductive Centre:

• 1,500 cycles of artificial insemination and ovarian stimulation
• 2,300 cycles of in vitro fertilization
• 50 cycles of fertility preservation for young women suffering from cancer

Source Montreal Gazette