Test tube demographics

Moscow allocates additional funds for infertility treatment

In difficult economic times, the Moscow government intends to maintain a craving for family values ​​and love of children among city residents. As the head of the city government’s health department, Andrei Seltsovsky, said yesterday, 150 million rubles will be allocated from the capital’s budget this year. for infertility treatment, including payment for the most expensive of all modern methods - in vitro fertilization (IVF). Thus, the city authorities will try not only to maintain the fairly high birth rate of the pre-crisis period, but also to qualitatively influence the demographic situation. After all, IVF is usually resorted to by older couples who have tested the strength of their relationship, having tried all other ways to find a child. Their desire to become parents is conscious and hard-won, and their material resources in most cases make it possible to create favorable conditions for the upbringing and education of a child. Thus, the city is investing not just in the next generation of Muscovites, but in the obviously prosperous part of it.

As Mr. Seltsovsky said, people of conscious age are now increasingly striving to become parents. The category of women, who until recently were disparagingly called “old-timers” and included those giving birth after 25 years, is now the most promising from the point of view of motherhood. “The population of people giving birth is changing, the number of births over the age of 30 and 40 is increasing. In 2008, the increase in the number of births among women over 30 years old was 44%, and among women over 40 years old - by 3.3% compared to 2004,” the head of the health department shared official statistics. Also, according to the official, an increasing number of “aged” Muscovites are deciding to have a second and third child. As Andrei Seltsovsky noted, “in 2004, the number of repeat births was 30%, in 2008 - 50%.”

There are now 1,700 women officially registered in the capital who want to undergo IVF. “Considering that the federal budget pays for this type of high-tech medical care at the rate of 125 thousand rubles. for one cell transfer, it is not difficult to calculate that the funds allocated by the Moscow government may be enough for 1,200 transfers,” Gennady Sukhikh, director of the Federal State Institution “Scientific Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology,” explained to Vremya Novostei. “The effectiveness of IVF is less than 30%, that is, for some, one or two procedures are enough to get results, while others will have to undergo five or six.” Accordingly, only a third of those who wish to do so will be able to satisfy the need for maternity at the expense of municipal funds this year.

But it is important not only to conceive, but also to give birth to a healthy child. As the chief obstetrician-gynecologist of the Moscow Department of Health Mark Kurtser told representatives of the Moscow government, in recent years it has been possible to significantly improve the statistics on newborn survival. In 2008, compared to 2003, this figure decreased by half. Maternal mortality also decreased by half. Rector of the Russian State Medical University named after N.I. Pirogov Nikolai Volodin supported his colleague: the infant mortality rate in Moscow, in his opinion, is indeed significantly lower than in Russia as a whole. But at the same time, the second place as a cause of mortality in the first year of life is occupied by congenital pathologies that lead to premature birth or are their consequence. “In the structure of infant mortality, premature births account for two-thirds,” said Nikolai Volodin.

Numerous infections also affect the health of newborns to no lesser extent. Starting from commonplace sexually transmitted diseases to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Andrei Seltsovsky especially noted that the number of pregnant women with the virus in Moscow has increased by almost 140 women over three years. In 2005, there were 370 such pregnant women in our city; at the end of last year, 509 were already registered. “Approximately 97% of children of such women are born without HIV infection. In 2008, 507 children were born without HIV, 13 were born infected,” the official said. He especially emphasized that he attributes the increase in the number of pregnant women with HIV to the fact that, against the backdrop of the stability of recent years and the increase in social benefits, women from socially disadvantaged environments, which are more affected by various vices, have become more willing to give birth. If the crisis drags on, it will be the low-income strata of society that will be the first to give up “extra mouths to feed,” which will inevitably lead to a deterioration in the rather favorable abortion statistics. According to the Department of Health, in the first quarter of this year the number of abortions decreased by 20% compared to the same period in 2008. In total, the number of abortions decreased from 35 thousand in 2004 to 25 thousand in 2008.

Galina PAPERNAYA