French government fertility campaign for 29-year-olds, Digi Mart USA News (France): Nine months after the launch of a long-awaited but criticized plan against infertility, the government announced on Tuesday, November 3, a national information campaign and a revised letter for French citizens aged 29, ahead of future “concrete measures” in 2027.
The plan against infertility was announced in February 2026 after President Emmanuel Macron promised it more than two years earlier, though it had long remained a dead letter. It planned, among other things, to raise awareness of a subject affecting more than three million people in France, including a message to French citizens on their 29th birthday, a communication campaign at the end of 2026, and an information website.
Faced with criticism from associations and professionals who judged the wording of the message intrusive or infantilizing, the government revised its approach. The Ministry of Health, together with Santé publique France, launched a first national information campaign on fertility aimed at “women and men aged 20 to 35, whether or not they have a parental project,” to “allow everyone to better understand the factors that influence their fertility.”
French citizens aged 29 will receive, by the end of November, a message on the Assurance maladie portal to “inform them about issues related to fertility and preservation options,” the ministry announced during a press conference. “The goal is to break the taboo and move into action,” Professor Samir Hamamah, co-chair of the fertility steering committee, told AFP.
The committee submitted a new report with proposals to strengthen information, prevention, access to care, the quality of care pathways, and support for innovation and research.
Public health concern over infertility is also growing, and efforts to address it face a surge in requests for medical assistance since the 2021 bioethics law extended assisted reproduction to all women. This has lengthened waiting times and pushed some patients to seek treatment abroad.
In February, the ministry announced plans to authorize several dozen new facilities to freeze oocytes by 2028. Thirty new centers have since been deployed, bringing the total number of authorized centers to 70.
The report recommends, among other things, extending the option of oocyte self-preservation “to all public and private ART centers,” about one hundred in total. The ministry, which is “taking this recommendation into account,” will “examine the procedures for opening new centers.” The report also recommends improving the diagnostic and therapeutic care pathway for fertility, notably through multidisciplinary management.
A “new phase of work” will now begin to “translate these proposals into concrete measures,” the ministry said, promising an update of the national fertility plan “at the beginning of 2027,” a few months before the presidential election.
Source: AFP
