TV & Press

Had to travel abroad to get pregnant after 8 IVF attempts in Norway

Had to travel abroad to get pregnant after 8 IVF attempts in Norway

TV 2 NyhetsKanalen, Norway. Anine Hallgren and Hanne Taalesen. 9 September 2018
Original video and text on Norwegian here: www.tv2.no/a/10063799


Translation to English

Anine, juarnalist:
1 out of 6 Norwegian couples struggle to get pregnant. After 8 failed IVF attempts in Norway Elin Renate Henne chose to travel abroad to get pregnant. But the Norwegian health authorities feels the Norwegian system is good.

Elin Renate:
— 'Up there – on the 5th floor, David was born.'

But it took a long time before David was born. Elin Renate and her husband first tried to get pregnant in 2010

— 'We thought that after we had gotten married, we wanted to have a child and start a familiy.'

But she did not get pregnant. Then she had 3 IVF attempts in the public system.

— 'It was like an assembly line, a bit impersonal.'

But it did not work.

— 'The world falls apart, you get broken'.

Attempts at a private clinic did not lead to success either.

— 'Fertilized eggs where transfered each time, but never a positive test. And without them being able to explain why. And that's what was hard to accept.'

Then Elin Renate heard about a clinic in Russia that TV2 has presented. She chose to go.

— 'They were in a way more personal, more detailed, more accurate. And we got a really close individual follow up.'

Elin Renate got a lot more hormones, and she used 17 different medications. But she succeeded.

— 'She saw it at once. Here it is.' (Crying)

1 out of 6 Norwegian couples struggles with getting pregnant. More and more turns to public or private clinics to get help.

Lise:
— 'We have gotten many feedbacks that the system feels like an a assembly line.'

The assosiation ”Dreamchild” (Ønskebarn)  feels that the Norwegian system could benefit from having a more individual approach.

— 'It is important that we get a good offer here at home – that we have to work to achieve this - that the couples feel they are taken care of here.'

Health director Bjørn Guldvog  feels that the fact that Norwegian couples succeed abroad, does not mean that the Norwegian system is poor.

Bjørn:
— 'I believe the Norwegian system is good. And then I believe it is important to say that the Norwegian system is interested in feedback. They want to improve. They don't think they are best at everything. We want both positive and negative feedback to learn from.'

The Health Directorate has no exact numbers, but estimates that 60% of those getting IVF help in Norway, get pregnant. They do not want to criticize the foreign offer, but ask people to think twice.

— 'In Norway we emphasize that the treatment used is knowledge based. And there are rigid rules and regulations for those running such clinics. This may vary abroad, and for us it is important that the risk for both mother and child is low.'

Elin Renate:
— 'I am not religious, but I have gotten a renewed faith in science.'

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