Reform and womens health
Many of the issues explored by the VLRC Enquiry into Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption have implications for women’s health and wellbeing. Here we draw on quotes from 2004 participants in the community self-help group Prospective Lesbian Parents to discuss some of the key issues.
Discrimination and emotional wellbeing
‘It’s bewildering and exasperating, but also destructive and debilitating, that the law – and a whole lot of people we don’t know – can have more power over our family than we have.’ – AB
The impact of discrimination on women’s wellbeing cannot be underestimated. The lack of protection of children’s relationship with their non-biological parent causes great stress to same-sex parents, and potentially on the wellbeing of families:
‘The emotional impact for my partner is significant. How can she feel secure in her relationship with our child/ren when she has so little legal status and so few rights? The law makes her invisible, and this must surely impact on her self-concept, and on how she parents ... I’m scared for our child/ren and how the law can be used to drive a wedge between members of our family.’ – AB
The uncertain legal status of donors also causes of great anxiety. Despite this, many women choose a known donor, believing it is in their children’s best interests to know their donor.
‘We feel the law is working against us being a stable, peaceful family, rather than being supportive of us as a family and extended family. It will be an added burden to live with.’ – Caitlin and Caz
Reproductive tourism is no holiday
‘The Melbourne clinic was only five minutes from my home and the whole process should have been over and done in less than an hour. Instead, it was regularly taking three or four days ... Over a period of eight months I had six inseminations in Sydney followed by six negative pregnancy tests ... I grew weary and began to dread each cycle.’ – Jacqui
Lack of access to clinic donor insemination in Victoria forces many women to travel interstate to attempt conception.
Impacts include:
Stress: accessing ART interstate adds enormously to the stress of what is already a difficult process, having a very detrimental impact on women’s emotional and physical wellbeing.
Impacts on employment: it is very difficult for some women to negotiate the necessary time off at short notice. This can result in even higher levels of stress and possible loss of livelihood.
Health impacts: arise from the difficulty of managing care from different providers in different states, working within different legal and medical frameworks.
‘The hardest thing is that the specialists are interstate. When things go wrong, we have had to wait 24 hours for advice. If further investigations are needed we have to go to our GP and ask them to do what the interstate clinician suggests. It’s a logistical nightmare.' – Sacha and Anna
Unnecessary medical intervention: scarcity of donor sperm (exacerbated by the practice of allowing donors to exclude lesbian/single women from using their donation) means that interstate and Victorian clinics rarely offer uninvasive donor insemination, before insisting on invasive and higher-risk IVF treatment.
Concerns about half-siblings: The prospect of children being half-siblings to children of acquaintances in the close-knit lesbian community, due to the shortage of clinic sperm, is dismaying to many women. This is also a concern for patients at Victorian clinics, and a common reason for women choosing home insemination, when they would prefer clinic sperm.
Risks associated with home insemination
‘Physical impacts include compromised health care, as I battle to find an accessible GP who understands these laws and who is sympathetic to my situation...’ – AB
For many women, home insemination is their first choice. For others who cannot afford to – or for other reasons cannot use – interstate clinics, it may be a poor second choice. Some may enter into less-than-ideal relationships with known donors. Such arrangements often have positive outcomes, but some are the source of great stress and family instability.
Another problem is that home insemination is illegal in Victoria. No one has ever been prosecuted, but the effect is to discourage women using home insemination from seeking legal or medical advice, and to discourage health and other practitioners from offering it.
‘The frustrating thing for me in considering the risks I might be taking was knowing that I was relying on ‘Brett’ to fully inform his GP of the situation and relying on his GP to understand the health issues involved. We were also relying on ‘Brett’ who we had known for four months at this stage to practice safe sex.’ – ‘Lisa’
Home insemination, when practiced without proper medical advice, can put both women and children at risk of a range of infections, sexually transmitted and otherwise.
‘We nearly tried a fresh insemination and after drilling our donor found out that he had just had an unsafe experience. If the laws were different in Victoria our health would be protected. We could have a donor go under the appropriate testing and have their sperm stored for us for use by us as required. This would reduce risk to us and our future children, reduce stress both emotional and financial ...’ – PP
Rainbow Families Council strongly advocates maintaining the Known Donor Self-insemination Program, available at Melbourne IVF, where known donor sperm is stored and screened for self-insemination. This program can address some of the health concerns relating to home insemination.
Unnecessary medical intervention
‘My partner has been deemed ‘medically infertile’ now as she has tried over 13 times to fall pregnant. This means she has had to use IVF rather than Donor Insemination. Had she been in a married/defacto heterosexual relationship, she could have tried DI. IVF carries far more health risks than DI, including the risks associated with ovarian hyperstimulation, anaesthesia, and other risks of surgery. The IVF drugs caused her to have nausea and migraines which required time off work. The IVF ovum pick-up has caused pain. These things could have been avoided had we had access to the services available to lesbians in other states.’ – Amanda
Since the McBain case in 2001, Victorian clinics have been able to offer fertility services to single and lesbian women proven to be ‘medically infertile’. This includes women with a diagnosed medical infertility, as well as women who have failed to conceive at least six times via home insemination or interstate donor insemination.
This has been a welcome relief to many women, yet it is our observation that almost invariably practitioners who might first try less invasive insemination with a heterosexual couple who had failed to conceive via intercourse, they are only willing to treat lesbian women with “full blown “IVF.
Anecdotally, there seems to be a concern among practitioners that their files will be audited, and that therefore only the most extreme fertility treatment is offered, where it can be clinically justified.
‘In the last month my partner and I have signed up to IVF with an anonymous donor. Our child won’t have a known biological father, and we have little to no information about this person. I was not able to have donor inter-uterine insemination, as I was told that the sperm is reserved for heterosexual women experiencing difficulties getting pregnant. For lesbians like me, who are only allowed onto the program if they are deemed ‘infertile’ then I only have the option of the invasive procedures of IVF.’ – ‘Lisa’
