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When Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby, was born in Oldham in 1978, the UK was a pioneering place to be when it came to fertility treatment, offering a beacon of hope to fertility patients around the globe. Today, that hope has been replaced by frustration for many in the UK, as new figures show that provision of NHS fertility treatment is being gradually eroded.
An audit released by campaign group Fertility Fairness reveals that when it comes to NHS-funded IVF, what you get depends entirely on where you live. Just 18 percent of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England are now offering the three full cycles of IVF treatment that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommends for women of 39 and under. Cumulative success rates over three cycles make IVF an effective treatment, but the Nice guidance is being ignored in many parts of the country where local decision-makers are setting their own rules about how much treatment to offer and about who qualifies to get it.
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There are also locally set eligibility criteria that can reduce access to treatment. Some people find that they are denied IVF because their partner has a child from a previous relationship, and this can seem particularly unfair when the “child” is in fact a young adult.
Read full, original post: If you need IVF, you shouldn’t have to check your postcode first
