The IVF postcode lottery in England is still in full swing according to BBC News reports, and where infertile couples in Scotland and Wales get excellent access to NHS-funded fertility treatment, in England many couples are denied it simply because of where they live.
Statistics show around two per cent of all children in the UK are now born via IVF, and whilst the NHS continues to cut funding of infertility treatment, it is the private IVF clinics who are filling the demand for treatment from those who need it.
What many people who are eligible for NHS IVF treatment don’t realise however, is that it is possible to request for NHS IVF funding to be directed to a private clinic of your choice. Your local PCT may automatically send you to a local NHS IVF clinic or hospital, but whether you’re given just one cycle of NHS-funded treatment or the NICE-recommended three cycles, you may prefer for it to take place with a private IVF clinic such as Manchester Fertility.
If so, please get in touch today to find out about how to request your funding to be transferred. Here at Manchester Fertility up to 40 per cent of all our new patients used to be NHS referrals, but since last year this has dropped considerably as more local NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) cut back their funding for IVF.
In Bury, Greater Manchester, for example, you will receive the full three cycles of NHS-funded IVF. However if you live in Warrington, you won’t receive any funding at all and will have to pay privately for your treatment – unless you have ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Of course there are also criteria to fill even if your PCT does fund IVF, such as how many children you already have, or lifestyle criteria such as whether you smoke or are overweight.
If you do need to go down the private route for IVF treatment because of lack of NHS funding, www.infertilitynetworkuk.com has useful information about the NHS IVF postcode lottery.
And don’t forget that if you’re prepared to be an egg donor, then you could join our egg-sharing scheme, where you donate half of your eggs in return for a subsidised cycle of IVF with us at a cost of £870 inclusive of all drugs. And we have good success rates of pregnancy – currently 64 per cent of the women who donate their eggs achieve pregnancy from their IVF cycle.
For more details, click here.
Last updated: 20th January 2020
