The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) recently submitted a plan for cancer patient fertility subsidies to the Executive Yuan.
The plan would cover egg freezing for breast cancer patients and sperm freezing for leukemia patients, although the timeline for implementation is under discussion.
The 2021 cancer diagnoses report showed that nearly 12,000 cancer patients that year were of reproductive age.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
In response, the HPA has formulated a medical subsidy to preserve fertility in leukemia patients and breast cancer patients, before expanding the program to other forms of cancer in the future.
The initial budget for the plan is NT$100 million (US$3.04 million), the agency said.
Speaking to reporters today, Lin Yu-hsuan (林宇旋) said that patient safety must be taken into consideration, and that fertility should be preserved while not delaying cancer treatments.
Details of the program have yet to be decided following further consultations with medical professionals, Lin said, adding that the program’s timeline has yet to be determined.
As people are getting married and having kids later in life, more couples are having difficulties getting pregnant, Lin said.
Currently available fertilization subsidies, established in 2021, only apply to married couples struggling with fertility and only for a maximum of six treatment cycles, Lin said
As of the end of last year, the program had assisted more than 21,514 couples and resulted in the birth of 24,653 babies, Lin said.
Many couples miss out on their prime fertility window due to misconceptions about pregnancy, Taiwan Fertility Society head Huang Chen-yu (黃貞瑜) said.
The most common myth is that a regular menstruation cycle means it is easy to get pregnant, but that is not necessarily the case, Huang said.
A successful pregnancy relies on a combination of several factors from both partners, Huang added.
If a couple has bad habits, such as staying up late or smoking, the quality of the sperm or eggs can decline, Huang said.
In vitro fertilization maximizes the success rate of pregnancy, she said, adding that it is dependent on several factors such as age, environment and even the differences between doctors and laboratories.
Early family planning is key to increasing the likelihood of success, she added.
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