- Around 3.5million couples in Britain – or one in six – have fertility problems
- Guidelines state that women aged 23
to 42 who are unable to conceive naturally should be offered three
courses of in-vitro fertilisation - But six trusts have stopped paying for IVF altogether while a further three quarters are refusing to offer all three courses of treatment
- Heartbroken couples say postcode lottery has ‘devastated their lives’
By
Sophie Borland
20:03 EST, 22 January 2014
|
04:20 EST, 23 January 2014
Thousands of women are being denied fertility treatment because health trusts are imposing ‘unfair’ rules to save money, a report warns today.
Six have stopped paying for IVF altogether. Three quarters are refusing to offer women at least three courses of treatment, as set out in official guidelines, because it is too expensive.
Most will not fund treatments for women if their partners smoke, are obese, drink too much or have children from a previous relationship.
Cut backs: Three quarters of NHS Trusts are refusing to offer women the full three courses of IVF set out in official guidelines while a further six have stopped funding IVF altogether
Heartbroken couples say this postcode lottery has ‘devastated their lives’ and means many will be unable to have children because they cannot afford private treatment.
Around 3.5million couples in Britain – or one in six – have fertility problems, which the NHS defines as not being able to conceive naturally within three years.
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence watchdog (NICE) state that women aged 23 to 42 who are unable to conceive naturally should be offered three courses of in-vitro fertilisation.
But a report by a group of charities calling themselves the National Infertility Awareness Campaign found that 73 per cent of health trusts do not follow these rules.
The trusts – which are now called clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which include all GP surgeries in a particular area – were set up to replace primary care trusts in 2012 to commission Health Service treatment for their patients. Most only offer women one or two courses, which lessens the likelihood of the treatment succeeding.
Several do not offer any, including Sutton and Merton in South London and four in North Yorkshire and York.
One in six couples – around 3.5million – have fertility problems. Those who have been denied IVF treatment on the NHS claim the postcode lottery has ‘devastated their lives’
Susan Seenan, of the charity Infertility Network, said: ‘It’s not fair. Where you live shouldn’t determine how much treatment you are allowed.
‘The CCGs are still not seeing infertility as a priority, some of them say it’s a lifestyle choice. Why would anyone choose to be infertile?’
One woman who spoke to the report’s authors said: ‘It has nearly destroyed our lives and made me feel like a failure.
‘My partner feels like he has completely failed me, and for a while I thought I would leave him.
‘I felt like something inside me died and was just going through the motions.
‘Time just stood still while we asked question after question and got no answers. Apparently we should have been given counselling, but this did not happen.’
Another said the way she had been treated left her ‘quite depressed’. ‘We can’t afford to go private, so will never have a child together,’ she added.
More than half of clinical commissioning groups will not offer IVF to couples if one already has a child from a previous relationship, even though this is not a stipulation in the NICE guidelines.
And many CCGs will not provide the treatment to couples if one of them smokes, drinks even a moderate amount of alcohol or is obese.
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The comments below have been moderated in advance.
xpat,
macerata,
1 hour ago
Good. When you look at the statistics on infant health for IVF babies you can see why nature decided it was best for these couples not to have children. They are hugely over represented in the tables for disabilities and major health problems. Putting it brutally it doesn’t make sense to enable people to have unhealthy children which will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in their lifetimes when cancer sufferers can’t get prompt treatment and drugs to save their lives and the quality of care in hospitals is so bad thta thousands of patients are dying unnecessarily every year. It is not as if there is a shortage of babies. It is sad for those who want children and can’t have them but in life you can’t have everything you want.
aBz4eVa,
Luton, United Kingdom,
1 hour ago
IVF shouldnt never be free! Asthma suffers have to pay for inhalers which saves lioves! IVF is to gain a child if you cant afford to pay for the treatment, than you wont be able to raise the child without handouts! its harsh but it needs to be stopped
linzi,
Chesterfield, United Kingdom,
2 hours ago
Children are a privilege and not a right – nature often knows best and there are often good reasons why people do not reproduce naturally. The NHS is a health service and therefore should be treating illness. I feel sorry for those who can’t have children naturally, but I do wonder what health issues the human race will face in generations when we have interfered so much with the natural process of reproduction
happyone,
Newham,
2 hours ago
There are so Many People in this world already, Why should We the Tax Payer, pay just so some women can feel better with their self image, the same as any other procedures such as Breast enlargement, tummy tucks. Anyone wants any of these, let them pay for them themselves.
sensible,
newark,
2 hours ago
Why should IVF treatment be free? These people are not ill. The NHS fund was set up to treat illness – lets keep it that way.
annabelinda,
London, United Kingdom,
2 hours ago
Dear Mistymoon,
You have no idea of the very real suffering and trauma infertility causes. Perhaps it is only an infertile couple can understand this.
busymum,
Nottingham,
2 hours ago
The NICE guideline is based on clinical need AND cost effectiveness – so it makes no sense to ration it in this way. The NHS wasn’t set up only to treat life limiting conditions and as infertility is a disease (World Health Organisation classification) then it is unfair to exclude people with this condition.
busymum,
Nottingham,
2 hours ago
Infertility is a disease not a lifestyle choice. The NICE fertility guideline is based on clinical and cost effectiveness so it makes no sense at all to ration it in this unfair way. And the NHS wasn’t set up to only help people with life limiting conditions. Hard to understand how hard infertility is until it affects you.
manoman,
portsmouth, United Kingdom,
2 hours ago
We have too many people in the UK, Why create more at my expense.
Corbycom,
London, United Kingdom,
2 hours ago
Very sensible. IVF should only be available privately.
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