In the en­tire state of Baden-Würt­tem­berg, birth rates have been de­cli­ning in re­cent years. While around 109,000 children were still born in the state in 2019, there were al­ready just under 1,000 fewer ba­bies in 2020. This trend is par­ti­cu­larly evi­dent in the city of Hei­del­berg. Here, each woman gives birth to only 1.06 children on average. In com­pa­rison: Na­ti­on­wide, there are 1.53 children born per woman.

There are many re­a­sons why it does not work na­tu­rally. In he­te­ro­se­xual cou­ples, me­dical re­a­sons such as in­fer­ti­lity in the man or gy­ne­co­lo­gical dia­gnoses in the woman usually stand in the way of ful­fil­ling the de­sire to have children. However, les­bian cou­ples or sin­gles often also have the great de­sire to raise their own children. The fer­ti­lity cen­ters in Hei­del­berg are the first point of con­tact for this.

Fer­ti­lity tre­at­ments for he­te­ro­se­xual cou­ples

The fer­ti­lity cen­ters in the uni­ver­sity city of Hei­del­berg offer he­te­ro­se­xual cou­ples the en­tire spec­trum of mo­dern re­pro­duc­tive me­di­cine. From dia­gnostics and the crea­tion of tre­at­ment plans in­di­vi­du­ally tailored to the couple to in­se­mi­na­tion (IUI), IVF (in vitro fer­ti­liz­a­tion) and ICSI (in­tra­cy­to­plasmic sperm in­jec­tion).

Fer­ti­lity tre­at­ments for les­bian cou­ples

Since the summer of 2018, unmar­ried les­bian cou­ples have also been me­di­cally ac­com­pa­nied in Hei­del­berg in ful­fil­ling their de­sire to have children. In coope­ra­tion with a sperm bank, as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion is per­formed with donor sperm. Here, too, there is a choice of dif­fe­rent me­thods such as IUI, IVF or ICSI.

Fer­ti­lity tre­at­ments for single women

In the 21st cen­tury, not every woman wants to live the classic fa­mily model with a hus­band, a house and a dog. There are more and more women who would like to ful­fill their lon­ging de­sire to have children wi­thout a steady partner at their side. Here, too, the fer­ti­lity cen­ters in Hei­del­berg pro­vide sup­port. The only pre­re­qui­site: a single woman must have a so-called gua­rantor person; a trusted person who could take care of the de­sired child if the worst came to the worst. This could be a best friend, a sister or even a mo­ther. Once this hurdle has been cleared, not­hing stands in the way of tre­at­ment with donor sperm in Hei­del­berg.

Fer­ti­lity tre­at­ments can quickly be­come very ex­pen­sive. In ad­di­tion to the tre­at­ment costs in the cli­nics, which are in­curred for ex­ami­na­tions, an­esthesia for punc­ture, etc., the costs for me­di­ca­tions also hit the books. The ICSI me­thod is the most com­plex and at the same time the most ex­pen­sive pro­ce­dure, which can cost up to 5000.00 Euros per at­tempt. He­alth insurance com­pa­nies usually only cover part of the costs for two to four at­tempts. This usually leaves a high per­sonal con­tri­bu­tion of 50% on average. A few he­alth insurance com­pa­nies cover up to 100% of the costs if a doctor pre­dicts suf­fi­ci­ently high chances of suc­cess.

The sup­port in­itia­tive “Help and Sup­port for In­vol­un­tary Child­less­ness The Fe­deral Mi­nistry of Fa­mily Af­fairs has laun­ched this sup­port in­itia­tive to en­sure that cou­ples in Ger­many do not fail to ful­fill their de­sire to have children be­cause of money. The fun­ding sup­ports mar­ried he­te­ro­se­xual cou­ples — and re­cently also unmar­ried cou­ples — with up to 50% of the per­sonal con­tri­bu­tion. Each fe­deral state sets its own eli­gi­bi­lity cri­teria for this once again. The share fun­ding does not have to be re­paid.

Un­for­tu­n­a­tely, the state of Baden-Würt­tem­berg is not yet part of this in­itia­tive. Ac­cord­ingly, no sub­si­dies are cur­r­ently avail­able to un­in­ten­tio­nally child­less cou­ples.

In order to ful­fill your de­sire to have a child, you should choose a fer­ti­lity clinic that meets your re­qui­re­ments and where you feel com­for­table. When choo­sing a clinic, there are a number of aspects to con­sider in order to en­sure that the the­rapy goes as smoothly as pos­sible. The suc­cess of a the­rapy de­pends on va­rious fac­tors. Both the ex­pe­ri­ence and qua­li­fi­ca­tions of the me­dical team and the tech­no­lo­gical status of the la­bo­ra­tory equip­ment (for ex­ample, whe­ther the clinic has a clean room la­bo­ra­tory) can have an im­pact on the suc­cess rate.

In ad­di­tion to the suc­cess rate, there are other is­sues that can be de­cisive in the selec­tion pro­cess. Good coun­sel­ling on the choice of the­rapy, as well as per­sonal care and the avai­la­bi­lity of the doctor can help you to get rid of worries and un­ans­wered ques­tions. In order to go through with the pro­cess of ful­fil­ling your child wish with con­fi­dence, the ex­pe­ri­ences of pre­vious pa­ti­ents can also give an in­di­ca­tion of the qua­lity or short­co­mings of a prac­tice.

Ano­ther aspect are the costs. To avoid sur­prises, fer­ti­lity cen­tres that main­tain a high de­gree of price trans­pa­rency are re­com­mended. In the case of tre­at­ments with donor sperm, you should also make sure that there is a coope­ra­tion with an ex­pe­ri­enced sperm bank, as they often offer a larger selec­tion of donor pro­files and have many years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the field of sperm do­na­tion.

When selec­ting our partner cli­nics, we al­ways make sure that both he­te­ro­se­xual and ho­mo­se­xual cou­ples or sin­gles are treated.
Are you ha­ving a hard time choo­sing a fer­ti­lity centre or do you have ques­tions about dif­fe­rent the­ra­pies and tre­at­ment me­thods? Our friendly team will be happy to help you in a free con­sul­ta­tion ap­point­ment.