CHEN is the representative NGO for fertility issues in Israel. In Israel, more than 160.000 couples and single people pursue infertility treatments.

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel stopped all fertility treatments as it is not considered an emergency treatment. For our patients, this disruption has been emotionally draining adding to the fact that infertility, in general, is already very frustrating and physically a difficult situation to deal with. 

As May is the last chance for more than 5.000 of our patients to go through a fertility treatment before resorting to egg donation, CHEN appealed to the Ministry of Health and took legal action to re-start these particular treatments. We had the support of a patients’ rights organization in the process.

Our efforts were fruitful and these fertility treatments have been resumed in the beginning of May, first for women aged 39 and over and, in the following month, for all other patients. 

Another aspect we dealt with was with regards to the system of payments. In Israel, fertility treatments are fully covered by the government but, due to a problem, the coverage had expired. CHEN appealed to the Ministry of Health, an effort that has guaranteed that all payments would be sorted by the end of June.

These are our current efforts to protect our patients. We understand that fertility treatments are not a lifesaving treatment but that does not mean their disruption is easy on fertility-seeking patients. 

In general, the COVID-19-19 situation in Israel is under control since the government reacted quickly and put the country in a lockdown. So we are now in somewhat on our way back to normal.

Let’s hope that in few weeks we will have our lives back.

Published on 14 May 2020.