Could you ask strangers for money to pay for IVF?

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…

Scotland invests in fertility services

Great news if you live in Scotland where the Scottish government is investing 12 million pounds in fertility services over the next three years.  The aim is to reduce waiting lists so that no one waits more than a year for fertility treatment - and to improve access across all local health boards.  Maybe this will inspire an improvement in the rest of the UK where the postcode lottery means that your access to treatment depends entirely on where you live.

Infertility Network Scotland, who have been campaigning hard for improvements in access to treatment in Scotland, have welcomed the move - details here

IVF rationing in Yorkshire

In one of the most ludicrous attempts at rationing IVF I've come across, women who need IVF in one area of Yorkshire will only qualify for funded treatment once they are approaching their fortieth birthday. North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust now only offers IVF to those who happen to be in the six months between the ages of 39 and a half and 40.

What possible logic can there be to limiting treatment to women who've reached an age at which it is far less likely to succeed? How can anyone consider this to be a sensible use of limited funds? It would perhaps be more honest to admit they are not really funding any treatment at all. The way treatment is being restricted by eligibility criteria in some parts of the country just goes to show how little understanding those who make decisions have of the things they are making decisions about...

I can only imagine that perhaps this is a deliberate attempt to make it impossible for anyone to qualify for NHS-funded treatment in the area, and to have so very few successful NHS-funded cycles that they can then claim IVF is simply not cost effective and stop paying for it altogether. The government keeps making noises about the unfairness of the postcode lottery, but surely a decision like this illustrates that it is time to give primary care trusts very strict guidance as many are clearly incapable of making sensible funding decisions themselves. You can read more about the situation in North Yorkshire and York here

Nurses call on government to end IVF lottery

Members of the Royal College of Nursing have voted to call on the government to fund three cycles of IVF for those who need it, and to put an end to the current postcode lottery for treatment.

Delegates at the RCN's annual Congress voted nine to one in favour of the proposal to lobby the government to ensure that local primary care trusts put the guidance they were given four years ago into action.

In 2004, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended that the primary care trusts should fund three cycles of IVF for those who needed it. At the time it was welcomed by all those in the field, but things have not improved for patients since.

in some areas there is still no funding for IVF at all. In others there is funding for one cycle, but many primary care trusts have invented their own eligibility criteria which means that many couples don't qualify.

It is wonderful news that the Royal College of Nursing have recognised the heartache caused by the current system, which has been branded a 'disgrace'.

The story has been taken up by the Daily Mail, and you can read more about it at www.dailymail.co.uk