Victoria to lift IVF counselling restrictions and loosen donor conception rules

As part of the reforms, the requirement to undergo counselling at a registered assisted reproductive treatment clinic will be scrapped, with prospective parents able to meet with any counsellor who satisfies the requirements.

There was also a 23% surge in the number of women freezing their eggs.

An average IVF cycle costs as much as $15,000. About one in every three women who receives IVF has a child as a result of the treatment.

A person is also able to use the eggs or sperm of their deceased partner in a surrogacy arrangement, giving more surviving partners a greater chance of still being able to have a child.

Changes have been made to allow nurses and other health professionals within registered assisted reproductive treatment clinics to carry out procedures under the supervision and direction of a doctor. Doctors outside of clinics are also be able to carry out artificial insemination.

Gorton also recommended the government establish public fertility services and a public sperm and egg bank.

At the 2018 election, the premier, Daniel Andrews, pledged $32m to introduce a number of low-fee bulk-billing clinics in Melbourne and regional Victoria.