Freeze your eggs by choice, not by medical necessity. And do it without having to spend thousands of euros. In Tuscany they are trying with a bill just presented which aims to make the so-called social freezing accessible (almost) to everyone.
Today in Italy freezing oocytes can cost a lot: a cryopreservation cycle ranges on average from 5,000 to 7,000 euros, with rare lower exceptions in some regions (2,000–3,000 euros). To these, we must add the annual conservation fee, from 100 to 300 euros, which varies between affiliated public structures and private centers. Therefore, choosing to postpone motherhood, for many women, is simply impossible, and not for biological reasons, but economic ones.
The Tuscan proposal tries to overturn this scheme, providing a contribution of up to 3,000 euros for women between 25 and 39 years old, resident in the region for at least a year and with an ISEE under 30 thousand euros. Concrete help, provided through the regional healthcare system, which can be requested only once in a lifetime and which will give priority to those with a lower income.
The text is at the beginning of its journey and will have to pass through the health commission before arriving at the regional council. But the political signal is clear: to intervene on a right, that of choosing if and when to become mothers, which today, in fact, is not really for everyone.
Behind this proposal there is also another theme, much less talked about but central: the decline in births. Istat data speak of a new historic low, with 1.14 children per woman. Yet, the desire to have children has not disappeared. According to some regional estimates, around 80% of women between 25 and 34 would like to become mothers. The problem is that he often can’t afford it, or not in the right conditions.
And this is where the social freezingas an additional tool and Tuscany is not alone. In recent years several regions have moved in this direction, from Puglia to Lazio, up to Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. But the picture remains fragmented and, above all, there is still a lack of national legislation capable of making this right truly structural.
Also because there is another, deeper issue: law 40 of 2004, which still regulates medically assisted procreation in Italy today. A rule considered by many to be outdated, which continues to exclude single women and homosexual couples from various paths. The Tuscan proposal only intervenes on the conservation of eggs, not on access to fertilization techniques, which remains bound to that law.
