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Fertility Europe

FE

-build a strong European network among European patients and professionals in order to achieve the exchange of best practise -promote education in the field of protection of reproductive health and a pro-active approach to family planning -improve the situation concerning the rights of those affected by difficulties in conceiving in many areas -allow equal access to safe and efficient fertility treatment and assisted reproduction without discrimination -promote fertility support -promote prevention in the areas of fertility

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Cecilia Strada (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

10 Dec 2025 · Exchange of views on the issues related to fertility problems and how to best guarantee the right to access to equal care for infertility patients.

Meeting with Sirpa Pietikäinen (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Nov 2025 · Fertility

Meeting with Eva Schultz (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu)

7 Oct 2025 · Meeting on advocacy for rights to fertility

Response to Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030

11 Aug 2025

Fertility Europe welcomes the European Commissions call for evidence on the 20262030 Gender Equality Strategy. As the EU charts the next phase of its equality agenda, it should confront a persistent and under-addressed injustice: the denial of reproductive autonomy to those who want to have children. Full reproductive freedom requires affirming the right to try to have children, with dignity, safety, and support to all those who are involuntary childless. This includes access to fertility care, inclusive family recognition, and protection from structural and legal discrimination. Today, that right remains inaccessible to millions across the EU. Infertility affects 1 in 6 people of reproductive age, yet access to fertility services is deeply unequal and often shaped by marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or socioeconomic status. As recognised by the WHO, infertility is a disease. However, the need for fertility treatment does not result only from infertility. The WHO recognises this: A wide variety of people, including heterosexual couples, same-sex partners, older persons, individuals who are not in sexual relationships and those with certain medical conditions, such as some HIV sero-discordant couples and cancer survivors, may require infertility management and fertility care services. Inequities and disparities in access to fertility care services adversely affect the poor, unmarried, uneducated, unemployed and other marginalized populations. The UNFPA has called it a major public health issue yet access to treatment remains limited and unequal. While a handful of Member States provide inclusive, publicly funded care, most still impose restrictive, outdated eligibility criteria, such as heterosexual-only access, unsuitable age caps, or invasive psychological screening. In some cases, treatment is legally restricted; in others, it is financially or culturally out of reach.
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Meeting with Maria Noichl (Member of the European Parliament)

7 May 2025 · Rights-based approach to fertility

Meeting with Marco La Marca (Cabinet of Commissioner Dubravka Šuica) and NOVE and

29 Apr 2025 · Fertility

Meeting with Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Mar 2025 · Event on fertility awareness

Meeting with Marko Vešligaj (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

7 Mar 2025 · Gender Equality Strategy 2025-2029

Meeting with Halliki Voolma (Cabinet of Commissioner Hadja Lahbib)

12 Feb 2025 · Sharing their work on reframing the fertility/infertility within the reproductive justice approach and focus on approaching Woman's Rights Roadmap.

Meeting with Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Oct 2024 · Speaker at launch of Coalition for Fertililty

Meeting with Maria Noichl (Member of the European Parliament)

25 Sept 2024 · Fertility policies in the EU

Meeting with Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Sept 2024 · Fertility policies in the EU

Meeting with Deirdre Clune (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Oct 2023 · European Fertility Week

Meeting with Predrag Fred Matić (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Sept 2023 · Fertility policies in Europe

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Jun 2023 · Access to Fertility

Response to Revision of the Union legislation on blood, tissues and cells

8 Sept 2022

Fertility Europe would like to present remarks to be considered. - We welcome proposed increased level harmonisation of practices in the field of MAR across European Member States by proposing a joint regulation to replace the current Directives. - We appreciate the proposed change in the definitions of ‘within couple use’ and ‘third party donation’ to replace the current terminology. Clarification is needed in the MAR field, together with the distinction between the terms ‘recipients’ and ‘donors’, throughout the whole legislative text, and its definitions: in the context of ‘within couple use’ (Article 3(63)) the person supplying their own oocytes for a MAR treatment should be defined as a ‘patient’, and at the time of the embryo transfer as a ‘recipient’; the person supplying their own sperm should be defined as a ‘partner’, not as a ‘donor’. In ‘third-party donation’ (Article 3(62)) in MAR, it needs to be clarified that the person is defined as a ‘recipient’ when they receive donated oocytes or embryos (from their own oocytes), which were inseminated with third-party donated sperm; the person is a defined as a ‘donor’ when they make donation. Also partners in ‘within couple use’ should not be referred to as ‘allogeneic donors’. In Article 3(18) - in the field of MAR, the ‘defined quality criteria’ for release of SoHOs or SoHO preparations can be applied to the processes, but not to the biological material itself, as using suboptimal sperm or embryo can lead to the birth of healthy children, with no increased risk for the mother and child. - We welcome the strengthened scope of the proposed Regulation regarding the protection of third-party donors and offspring born from MAR: mandatory third-party donor health evaluations; mandatory registration and follow-up of third-party donors subjected to a surgical procedure in order to donate, donors who are treated with hormones to facilitate donation, and those who donate on a frequent and repeated basis; mandatory reporting concerning both third-party donors and offspring from MAR, including serious adverse occurrences (SAOs) reporting. - We welcome that Article 58(10) shall constrain SoHO entities from applying SoHO preparations to recipients without proven benefit, and from promoting particular SoHO preparations to potential recipients or health care professionals using information that is misleading. This is a positive development that shall restrict the use of unvalidated add-on procedures for MAR. - Fertility Europe considers that protection of offspring born from the third party donation is insufficient by allowing Member States to regulate third party donation as anonymous. The right of the children to know the identity of donors together with their health evaluation should be granted by this Regulation as it affects offspring’s safety in the aspect of mental health. - Fertility Europe considers it very important that the proposed Regulation extends the role that experts will play, including the assessments of SoHO preparations, inspections of SoHO establishments and SoHO entities, and their participation at the meetings of the SoHO Coordination Board. Fertility Europe proposes that patients’ organisations are included as experts in the work of the SoHO Coordination Board. We would like to see that more clearly described in the rules of procedure or implementing act of this Regulation. - We are welcoming that inspectors of SoHO entities and establishments are now proposed to not just possess evidence of their formal qualifications in a relevant field, but they shall also undergo a specific induction training. - We are supporting the extended requirements for data collection, as provided in the proposed Regulation - collecting donor follow-up data and activity data. Fertility Europe is the European organisation representing 31 national patients’ associations dedicated to (in)fertility.
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