The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it would study the feasibility of subsidizing oocyte cryopreservation — the extraction and freezing of egg cells — after city councilors proposed the idea to help boost the city’s birthrate.
Several councilors at a Taipei City Council committee hearing proposed providing subsidies to women aged 25 to 40 to freeze their eggs to improve their chances of conceiving later in life.
Women are having children later on average, but egg freezing is prohibitively expensive for most, Taipei City Councilor Chen E-jun (陳怡君) said.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
Chen suggested requiring a doctor’s consultation and proof of the procedure to receive a one-time subsidy of NT$30,000, followed by NT$5,000 for each of the following three years to pay for storage.
The funds would only be the “tip of the iceberg,” as the procedure typically costs NT$30,000 to NT$100,000, Chen said.
GIVING BIRTH LATER
In 2021, 30 percent of all births were by women aged 35 or older, Taipei City Councilor Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said, citing Ministry of the Interior data.
In Taipei, the figure was higher than 40 percent, she said.
The average age a woman has her first child has risen by 1.68 years over the past decade to 33.34 in 2021, Taipei City Councilor Liu Tsai-wei (柳采葳) said.
As egg quality gradually declines with age, in vitro fertilization tends to be more successful with younger eggs, Taipei Fertility Center physician Jason Ho (何彥秉) said.
In addition, the egg recovery rate with modern fast-freezing technology exceeds 90 percent, making it a low-risk procedure, he added.
Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) said that marriage should not be a requirement to qualify for the subsidy, as it would exclude unmarried people and same-sex couples.
Taoyuan is already offering the subsidy, she said, asking why Taipei, as the nation’s largest city, is not doing the same.
Taipei City Councilor Lee Yen-chang (李彥昌) proposed studying the results of similar policies in other municipalities before Taipei issues subsidies.
The city should also encourage women to use the eggs later on, he said, adding that people might take the money and never use the service.
The city’s health department is to convene a meeting of experts to discuss the possibility of offering a subsidy, Taipei Department of Health Commissioner Chen Yen-yuan (陳彥元) told the councilors.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS