Mapping England’s ‘cruel’ IVF postcode lottery: how some NHS boards are offering just one free cycle, limiting treatment to under-35s and refusing couples who already have children

England’s ‘cruel’ IVF postcode lottery is exposed today by MailOnline’s interactive map.

Under current official guidelines, women under 40 who are struggling to have a child should receive three cycles of NHS fertility treatment.

Yet only three parts of the country adhere to these entry criteria, which were developed 10 years ago.

Most health authorities, who are allowed to make their own entry rules, only offer one IVF cycle.

Some deny it to women over 35. Others even refuse to pay for the procedure if they or their partner already have children.

Charities denounced the ‘arbitrary’ criteria used across England, arguing that it forces couples desperate to have a baby into ‘significant financial hurdles’.

Private clinics can charge over £10,000 for one IVF cycle, which has a success rate of just 27 per cent.

But the success rate is highly dependent on age.

About a third of IVF cycles among 35-year-olds resulted in a live birth in 2019. Yet this dropped to only 4 percent among the over-44s.

The data crunched by MailOnline has been published by the Department of Health, in an attempt to explain how access to NHS-funded IVF varies across the country.

The procedure, first performed in the 1970s, involves removing an egg from a woman’s ovaries and fertilizing it with sperm in a lab.

The fertilized egg, called an embryo, is then returned to the woman’s uterus to grow and develop.

Figures show that only women aged 35 and under are eligible for NHS-funded IVF in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

This is the strictest age limit of all Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). Some offer IVF to women up to age 42.

Women under the jurisdiction of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ICB are also not allowed to have children from a current or previous relationship to meet the criteria.

A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB told MailOnline: ‘We understand how important IVF is for couples who need help to conceive, and to ensure our policy is consistent with best clinical practice, national policy and other commissioners of this service, our policy is currently under review.’

However, the same policy is in effect at 24 of the 33 UCIs (73 percent) that provided details of fertility services to the Department of Health.

This is despite the fact that it is not listed in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, which the NHS is required to follow.

Only eight ICBs offer full cycles.

Failure to offer a full cycle means that any remaining viable embryos will not be used. However, couples can choose to freeze them for a fee so they can use them for a further private transfer – which costs around £2,000.

NICE guidelines also state that all IVF should be offered to women under 43 who have been trying to conceive for two years by having regular unprotected sex.

While women aged 40 or under should receive three IVF cycles, those aged 40 to 42 should only receive one, the NHS says.

And the final decision on who can get NHS-funded IVF is made by ICBs, whose criteria may be stricter than those recommended by NICE.

Some ICBs put additional hurdles for those who want to have children.

These include not offering the fertility treatment to those who have paid for even a single IVF cycle themselves, which costs an average of £7,000 to £8,000 in the UK.

Others argue that patients must have had unexplained fertility for three years before accessing treatment.

For female same-sex couples, most ICBs require that they have paid for three to 12 rounds of artificial insemination – when sperm is injected directly into the uterus – before they can access IVF on the NHS.

New official figures show that while some parts of the country offer three rounds of fertility treatment, others just one

Dr. Catherine Hill, interim director of the charity Fertility Network UK, told MailOnline: ‘It’s been 45 years since the world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born in Oldham.

‘This means that England has had longer than any other country to access NHS-funded fertility treatment, and yet we are still a long way from this.

‘It’s still the case that if you need medical help to get pregnant, most people in the UK have to pay privately, and the level of help you get varies depending on where you live.

“The vast majority of integrated care boards do not offer three full IVF cycles for women under 40 as recommended by NICE guidelines.

Instead, ICBs apply their own arbitrary, cruel and often non-clinical criteria to ration access to NHS-funded fertility treatment.

‘Some NHS women over 35 don’t help, others only offer the bare minimum of just one embryo transfer, and most say if you have a fertility problem but you fell in love with someone who already has children, you can’t get help. .’

She added: ‘If you are a woman in a same-sex relationship then you will face significant financial hurdles before you can get NHS treatment and if you are single you will either face the same financial hurdles receive or be refused. any help.

“As a society and healthcare system, we are failing fertility patients.

“Unfortunately, the Government’s recently published incomplete data on what ICBs offer does absolutely nothing to change the current dire picture of the NHS’s fertility provision in England.”

Sarah Norcross, director of Progress Educational Trust, a charity campaigning to improve choices for people suffering from infertility and genetic disorders, told MailOnline: ‘Almost 20 years after the NICE guideline for fertility treatments was introduced, it is still not in place. implemented.

‘A patient’s ability to access NHS fertility treatments still depends on where they live. This is and has always been unacceptable.

‘PET is campaigning to end the postcode lottery so that all UCIs comply with the NICE guideline.’

Clare Ettinghausen, the HFEA’s director of strategy and corporate affairs, told MailOnline that while fertility treatments “help thousands of people start families each year,” access varies across the country.

It noted there were 17 per cent fewer NHS-funded IVF cycles in 2021 compared to 2019 due to Covid-fuelled waiting list backlogs.

Kayleigh Hartigan, fertility expert and founder of Fertility Mapper, a clinic assessment platform, told MailOnline: ‘The data shows significant differences in who has access to fertility treatment and what and how much treatment they are entitled to in the UK. This is known as the “zip code lottery”.’

She added: ‘Fertility treatments are costly and emotionally and physically draining.

“Providing clear and transparent information is critical to supporting people through this process, putting them back in control and helping them make informed choices.

“(It) is a difficult process for everyone – and it is made even more difficult by fragmented treatment pathways and a profound lack of transparent information and data.

“This makes it difficult and stressful to figure out how to pay for treatment and choose the right clinic for your budget and needs.”