The government presented a fifteen-point plan against infertility on Thursday. Flagship measures: message sent to all French people on their 29th birthday, improvement in the treatment of PCOS and endometriosis and opening of oocyte preservation establishments to the private sector.

Published on: 05/02/2026 - 11:43

Promised by Emmanuel Macron but remained a dead letter for a long time, a plan against infertility is finally emerging. Presented Thursday February 5 by the government, it notably plans to raise awareness on this subject which affects more than three million French people.

“The time is for action,” assures the Ministry of Health in a press release which details a plan against infertility in around fifteen points.

For patients and specialists, the wait was long. The head of state, Emmanuel Macron, had promised such a plan in 2024, and its roots even go back to 2022 when the government of the time commissioned a report on the subject.

Since then, almost nothing has happened, even though infertility affects, according to this report, more than three million French people. Only one component linked to research had materialized with the launch of several programs, for example to improve the effectiveness of medically assisted procreation (MAP).

The very fate of the plan was open to doubt. At the head of the Ministry of Health for most of 2024 and 2025, Catherine Vautrin had indicated her preference for a broader plan, around the themes of aging and birth rates, raising fears of a mix of genres among specialists.

The refocusing on infertility is now assumed by the current minister, Stéphanie Rist. The French, when they want a child, "do not spend their time looking at demographic graphs", pointed out the ministry during a briefing to the press.

The measures announced Thursday respond in particular to a long-standing request from experts: to raise public awareness of the risk of waiting too long, when fertility drops quickly with age and difficulties in conceiving are often linked to attempts that are too late.

“Avoid the ‘if I had known’”

The flagship measure of the plan, a message must, from the end of the summer, be sent to all French people when they turn 29. But, promises the ministry, it is not a question of being “prescriptive” to encourage people to have children.

This clarification comes in a context where Emmanuel Macron had been criticized by several feminist associations for having linked infertility to a problem of “demographic rearmament”, a warlike rhetoric deemed inadequate.

The message will respect the choice not to have children by also recalling elements on contraception, explained the ministry, assuring that it was above all a question of "avoiding the 'if I had known'".

A communication campaign on reproduction issues must be launched at the end of 2026 and, very soon, an information site will be available on the subject.

The plan, whose overall budget is not detailed, is not limited to communication. The ministry also wants to increase the possibilities of freezing one's eggs, a choice permitted by the bioethics law of 2021 but which in reality faces long waiting times.

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By 2028, the ministry would like to authorize several dozen new establishments to do so. He clearly plans to open this area to the private sector, nevertheless ensuring that the procedure will remain free and free from “commercial logic”.

The plan also promises better management of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a disorder that affects many women and promotes infertility. This is also the case for endometriosis but, while this is already the subject of a government plan, PCOS has until now remained largely absent from public discourse.

Alongside this plan against infertility, which will be led by the authors of the 2022 report - Professor Samir Hamamah and patient Salomé Berlioux - the ministry has also announced work on health issues linked to birth, while France has infant and maternal mortality rates significantly higher than many European neighbors.

The objective is to "bring out a consensus on the causes", explained the ministry, while the factors and hypotheses seem multiple: overloaded maternity wards, social inequalities...

With AFP

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