New regulation of fertility treatments in Costa Rica

15.06.2015

The Costa Rican Doctors and Surgeons Association announced new regulations for fertility treatments following in May.

According to daily La Nación, the association’s board of directors approved new guidelines proposed by the Human Fertility Commission that would increase the chances of having a single baby rather than a multiple pregnancy through artificial insemination to 90 percent. The association said that multiple births could endanger the mother and her children.

The goal of artificial insemination is to increase women’s production of ovarian follicles, where eggs develop, by administering hormones. Due to the new regulations, to reduce the probability of multiple births, no more than four follicles can be fertilized in each woman.

Also such regulation would restrict the treatment if a woman’s estrogen levels are above 1,000 pico-liters per cubic centimeter. Alexis Castillo, president of the association said that increased estrogen levels can raise the likelihood of multiple births in the treatment and the risks that entails.

As it is known, artificial insemination is different from in vitro fertilization, which is illegal in Costa Rica. Artificial insemination involves the introduction of semen into a woman’s uterus by non-sexual means where fertilization takes place inside the uterus. In vitro fertilization takes place in a laboratory outside the woman’s body.

Costa Rica’s sextuplets were the product of fertility treatments that Silvia Villegas, the sextuplets’ mother, received in country. The sextuplets were born premature and four have died from various complications since their birth on May 18.

There were also two sets of quadruplets born in May and the Doctors and Surgeons Association opened an investigation into the doctors responsible for the procedure.

Based on: ticotimes.net