It may sound incredible, but apparently people are having to come up with ever more inventive ways to fund their fertility treatment in the current economic situation. With many couples already living on overdrafts, cutting back on holidays or other luxuries will not free up the ready cash needed, and getting loans or using already overloaded credit cards is becoming increasingly difficult. So, in the States at least, some couples have apparently turned to the internet using websites or Facebook to ask strangers for money to fund their treatment – see this article. Could you consider this? Should you have to?
Here in the UK, the postcode lottery for treatment continues to cause distress to many couples who find they can’t access IVF despite being eligible according to the national guidelines because in their local area the primary care trust has decided not to fund treatment – or to ration it. It can be very difficult to find the money for private treatment which will cost more than the NHS would pay. Lord Winston campaigned on this some time ago – saying that many clinics were hugely overcharging for fertility treatment and that it could be far cheaper.
Asking strangers for money may seem extreme, but does perhaps illustrate how difficult it can be to live with involuntary childlessness…
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