Assisted reproduction in Greece: Sociodemographic aspects and health behavior analysis

Introduction The National Organization for HealthCare Services Provision (EOPYY) is the largest Greek insurance company (governmental). Four IVF attempts are reimbursed by EOPYY to women until the 50th year of their age. The aim of this study was to outline the sociodemographic characteristics of infertile patients in Greece and find their association with diagnoses/applied methods in cases of public funded assisted reproduction attempts. Methods Data concerned 9648 infertile patients who obtained approval from In Vitro Fertilization Committees (IVF Committees) of EOPYY during the period 2013–2015 were collected. Data were not collected directly from patients but from EOPYY’s dataset. Results A total of 10889 IVF cycles were covered during 2013–2015. Mean age of women who underwent IVF was 36.9 years and the most common diagnoses were abnormal semen parameters, male factor and increased sperm adhesion (39.9%) with 11.1% of cases having more than one cause of infertility. The most common method was IVF (86.1%) and 88.6% of women did mostly one to two attempts of IVF whereas the 45.7% of cases were related to female reproductive system problems. Inexplicable infertility was reflected in 11% of cases and 2% of infertile couples used donor sperm. Women were mostly residing in large urban centers (64.7%). Conclusions An annual average of 3629 IVF cycles was reimbursed by EOPYY. There was a wide range of infertility causes. Most women were aged 30–39 years and were living in large cities. Couples preferred to use their own sperm/ ovaries, did mainly IVF while they were careful regarding the number of attempts.

Abstract licence: CC BY-ND

1. 4.

   National, Regional, and Global Trends in Infertility Prevalence Since 1990: A Systematic Analysis of 277 Health Surveys · 2012

18 more references, whose wording the paper’s licence keeps private.

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.