Page 3516 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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As the Minister for Mental Health, I am conscious that there is a mental health and wellbeing component to this issue as well. Many people who have planned to have families, who expect that that will be their path in life, are thrown a curve ball when diagnosed with a serious illness that could impact their fertility. They may experience mental health concerns as a result of that process of trying to deal with those very difficult emotions when their plans for a family are so suddenly impacted. There is the inherent trauma associated with undergoing treatment for a serious illness as well. Potentially providing an avenue to engage with fertility preservation services may well assist people in terms of their mental wellbeing when it comes to dealing with the many issues that are thrown at them once they receive such a serious diagnosis.
Having said all of that, I support Ms Cheyne’s call on the government to investigate the feasibility of a fertility preservation service to be available to Canberra’s cancer and other illness patients who are in their reproductive years. I acknowledge that fertility clinics are already available in the ACT in the private sector and are a thriving industry, but private fertility clinics can be quite expensive. There is also a cost involved in maintaining the reproductive resources obtained from patients. Once the eggs or the sperm have been obtained, they have to be very carefully stored to ensure that they continue to remain viable.
I am conscious of the need to consider what this cost would be to our public health system. We will need to determine if this is something that is best provided in the public health system or whether the private services are enough. That is where the feasibility study is particularly valuable. It can consider these questions. I do not claim any expertise on these questions but they are really important questions to consider as we deal with all the issues we have just touched on around families being able to access the ability to have a family after serious illness and the various resource questions that would go with that.
Clearer education from treatment providers on the risk to fertility for people of reproductive age with cancer or other illnesses would be a really valuable step to help people make more informed decisions and also be aware of what services are available to them.
This motion also throws up a lot of questions. That is why we are very happy to support it today. We welcome the feasibility study to determine what the need, the financial costs and the best approach to this issue would be; to explore some of these questions in some detail; and to be able to provide the government with some really clear advice on the best way we can support those people who find themselves with cancer or other serious illnesses at that point in their life where starting a family is still a question that lies ahead of them.
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (11.09), in reply: I thank all colleagues in this chamber today for their support for what I think is an incredibly important issue. I was very pleased to hear everyone attest to that in their own remarks. I am very grateful to have the tripartisan support of this Assembly today.
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