In an anonymous post shared on the Facebook group Women For Women, a woman has recounted how she feels broken for a second time and cheated by the government after learning that donor sperm is not being imported to Malta due to an “excessive amount of bureaucracy and red tape”.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote how he had decided to opt for getting a donor sperm from a sperm bank abroad as her husband was sterile, and how she had voted for the Labour party in the hope that “people with sensitive issues like [hers] were finally going to get all the understand and help needed”.

She wrote of her elation when hearing that of the passing of the recent IVF Bill – which included laws on sperm donation, which was previously illegal – but said that her elation soon turned to “utter dismay” when she contacted the director of the St. James Hospital medical lab services, who told her that donor sperm is not being imported to Malta as there is an “excessive amount of bureaucracy and red tape involved that does not make it even worth trying”.

She said that she felt “broken for a second time” and “cheated by a government which promised a more open minded approach and used vulnerable people insensitively for his own political agenda.”

The woman’s full post can be found below:

“A few years ago I received the devastating news that my husband and I couldn't conceive naturally due to him being sterile. After having thought all options thoroughly and due to the fact that it had always been my dream to carry my own child, I decided to opt for getting a donor sperm. Obviously from a sperm bank overseas.

“My gynaecologist has been encouraging me, saying that although getting a donor sperm was against the law at the time, the law was about to change, which in fact did a few months ago.

“Having followed the successful story of a transgender friend of mine who was used in the media during the election campaign, I voted for the Labour party, truly hoping that people with sensitive issues like mine were finally going to get all the understanding and help needed. I was not hoping for any financial help but rather the passing of such a law. You can imagine how elated I was once I got to know that it did in fact pass.

“I had another visit to my gynaecologist recently to ask him the way forward. Since I was the first one who asked him about the procedure since the passing of the IVF bill (sperm donation was part of it too), he asked me to contact the director of the medical lab services at St James. After speaking to him, to my utter dismay, I learned that donor sperm is not being imported to Malta as there is an excessive amount of bureaucracy and red tape involved which does not make it even worth trying. There is no one locally who is doing this procedure!

“Emotionally I feel broken for a second time…the same way it felt a couple of years ago when I got the news that we were infertile. I feel cheated by a government which promised a more open minded approach and used vulnerable people insensitively for his own political agenda.”