PMA: what does the bioethics law of 2021 say?

Previously reserved for heterosexual couples facing difficulties in giving birth, assisted reproduction is now also available to single women and female couples since the summer of 2021.

Definition: what does PMA mean?

PMA is an acronym that stands for assisted reproduction. AMP means medically assisted procreation. Two names to designate all the techniques that aim to support people who need help to carry out their child project.

Different methods make it possible to support infertile heterosexual couples, female couples and single women in their desire for a child: IVF (in vitro fertilization), artificial insemination and the reception of embryos.

Who can use this assisted reproduction?

Since the adoption by the National Assembly on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, of the bioethics law, heterosexual couples, female couples and single women can use this technique for assisting procreation. This medical assistance is reimbursed in the same way, regardless of the situation of the person requesting it. Social Security covers the costs of ART in France until the woman’s 43rd birthday, for a maximum of 6 artificial inseminations and 4 in vitro fertilizations.

PMA for all in France: what does the 2021 bioethics law change?

The bioethics bill adopted by the National Assembly on June 29, 2021 not only widens access to medically assisted procreation for single women and female couples. It also allows self-preservation of gametes except for medical reasons for any woman or man who wishes it, it modifies anonymity conditions for a donation of gametes and thus facilitates access to the origins of children born from a donation, and it puts on an equal footing anyone who wishes to donate a blood donation – heterosexual or homosexual.

What is the journey of an assisted reproduction?

The deadlines are long at each stage of the journey of a PMA or MPA in France. Must therefore arm yourself with patience, and it is advisable to rely on the support of relatives, or even a psychologist. For heterosexual couples, the gynecologist will recommend trying to have a child naturally for a year before starting fertility tests and, potentially, the reproductive journey with medical assistance.

The first step in the assisted reproduction journey is the ovarian stimulation. Then the steps differ depending on the process we are currently following: in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination. The waiting lists to obtain a donation of gametes are estimated at one year on average. With the bioethics bill, the recent expansion of access to assisted reproduction and the modification of the conditions of anonymity for gamete donation, these lists could grow longer.

Where to do a MAP?

It exists 31 centers of PMA in 2021 in France, called CECOS (Center for the Study and Conservation of Human Eggs and Sperm). It is also in these centers that you can donate gametes.

What is the specific filiation mechanism for female couples?

The 2021 bioethics bill provides for a specific parentage mechanism for couples of women performing assisted reproduction in France. The aim is to allow the mother who did not bear the child to establish her parentage with this one. The two mothers will therefore have to carry out a joint early recognition before a notary, at the same time as the consent to the donation required for all couples. This specific filiation mechanism will be mentioned on the child’s full birth certificate. The mother who bore the child will, for her part, become a mother during childbirth.

In addition, couples of women who have conceived a child by assisted reproduction abroad before the law will also be able to benefit from this mechanism for three years.

PMA or GPA: what are the differences?

Unlike assisted reproduction, surrogacy involves a “surrogate mother” : the woman who wishes a child and who cannot be pregnant, calls on another woman to carry the child in her place. Male couples also use surrogacy to become parents. 

In a surrogacy, the “surrogate mother” receives by artificial insemination the spermatozoa and the oocyte, resulting from the future parents or resulting from a donation of gametes.

This practice is prohibited in France but authorized in some of our European or American neighbors.