IVF treatment - an end to the postcode lottery
If you want a baby and can't conceive, where you live will have a big impact on the kind of medical help you receive. Primary Care Trusts (previously health authorities) vary dramatically in their IVF treatment policy.
Not all Primary Care Trusts provide fertility treatments via the NHS, some areas prohibit NHS infertility treatments for women over 35, while others are willing to help older women conceive.
The government has pledged to end this inequality. It has asked NICE (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence) to draw up national guidelines, setting a maximum age for women who would be eligible for treatment, the number of cycles they can have on the NHS, as well as the methods and drugs which should be available.
These guidelines will be issued in November 2003 and then it will be up to the Commission for Heath Care Audit and Inspection to implement the recommendations. A draft of the guidelines will be made available to the public a few months before they are issued. Visit the NICE fertility page to take a look - you will be given the opportunity to comment on the proposed guidelines at this stage.
One in seven couples have trouble conceiving, and about 43,700 couples seek fertility treatment each year, from the 75 clinics around the country – some NHS, but mostly private.
If you go for private treatment the cost is frightening. Each cycle could set you back between £2500 and £3000, and it’s unlikely that the first attempt will work. On average, couples undertake three cycles of treatment.
Announcing the plan to provide a more equal range of treatment across the country, the health secretary, Alan Milburn, said, ‘Infertility causes distress to thousands of couples. Unfortunately, NHS fertility services vary massively around the country. Some health authorities pay for it, some do not. That postcode lottery has to end now, given the scale of extra resources we are putting into the NHS.’
If you want to find out if your area funds IVF speak to your GP or local health authority. Some areas pay for a small number of treatment cycles per year but because the funding is limited, health authorities often apply criteria, such as the age of the woman, to ration access.
For more information see other related articles:
IVF - what you need to know.
Infertility treatments - what the future holds.
Fertility at forty, or even thirty.
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