Tunisia: singer Nermine SFAR opens a debate on freezing of oocytes

Women demand the liberalization of this practice excluding medical indications, arguing of the increasing gap between organic age and the “societal” age.

Le Monde with AFP

“I decided to freeze my oocytes”: This announcement of the singer Nermine SFAR, star of social networks, triggered a debate in Tunisia, where women claim the liberalization of this practice out of medical indications. M me SFAR, 31, advises singles occupied by studies or their professional career to preserve their fertility so that one day “they realize their dream of being mother”.

In Tunisia, the legislation authorizes the use of this technique only to married women or singles “subject to treatment or who are preparing for an act that may affect their ability to procreate”, including chemotherapy. Which is not the case of the singer. The operation is to take oocytes, freeze and store them in liquid nitrogen for subsequent pregnancy. In Tunisia, storage is set by the five-year law, renewable after written request from patients.

The declaration of the singer triggered a debate on social networks and in the media on the need to expand the application of the law. Internet users have judged this secondary issue in a country in politico-economic crisis, but others have emphasized its importance in a pioneering nation in the Arab world rights. “In Tunisia, there are unfortunately brains and frozen laws,” says a user.

“We have the approval of religious”

For the feminist Yosra Frawes, Nermine SFAR has “democratized a subject rarely mentioned in the past in Tunisia, because civil society was concerned about other issues.” “Thanks to social networks, there is a liberation of speech, topics that were taboo are democratically debated” today, “she said to AFP.

For two years, Nayma Chermit, 40 years old, chronicler of a local TV and director of the Arabesque information site, desire to freeze his oocytes. “I find no logic in this frustrating law that excludes the single woman, in good health but with professional responsibilities and financial constraints that push her to delay her marriage and pregnancy project,” she deplores. M me chermit also regrets “the absence of a mobilization of civil society to push the legislator to revise this law promulgated twenty-one years ago, which does not correspond to the evolution of the woman and her responsibilities “.

“There is a pressing demand for young single women, almost every day,” confirms at AFP Dr. Fethi Zhiwa, head of the in vitro fertilization unit at the Aziza-Othmana Hospital in Tunis. This request “accelerated in the last five years due to the evolution of the Tunisian society, where the average age of marriage among women is 33 years old,” says: “there is a lag Between organic age, which controls the age of reproduction, and societal age, which commands the evolution of careers. “

“This is 15% of our activity, which is not negligible, continues Dr. Zhiwa. Since 2014, nearly a thousand patients have frozen their oocytes, including more than 80% of singles.” According to He, the revision of the law that supervises this practice would be “simply”: “There must be a political will, especially that we have the approval of the religious. Their only concern is to make sure he there will be no exchange or gift of gametes. “

A law” victim of its precocity “

Dr. Zhiwa, who participated in the elaboration of the text, finds that the 2001 law is “victim of its precocity”. At the time, she was very early, especially compared to neighboring countries.

It was only in 2019 that was adopted in Morocco a medically assisted procreation law for married people. The freezing of oocytes among singles is permitted in case of pathology such as cancer, says Professor Jamal Fikri, Vice President of Moroccan College of Fertility. But for the “societal preservation” of fertility, “people who have the means go abroad, as for donations of eggs or sperm”, he considers.

In Algeria, no law does not incurs an authorized practice only to married women, by signing a contract with the clinic. In Libya, the preservation of the fertility of single women does not exist, according to several doctors.

/Media reports.