IVF triple chance for childless couples (From Echo)

IVF triple chance for childless couples

8:30am Monday 25th August 2008 in News By Michelle Archard

Good news – IVF support counsellor Tamsin Bowers with baby daughter Azaria and twins Isabella and Francesca

COUPLES with infertility problems will soon be offered the chance of more IVF treatment.

From next April, local couples will be offered three attempts to have a baby using fertility treatment on the NHS – at the moment they are only entitled to one.

Primary care trusts in the east of England have now accepted a recommendation on IVF from Nice, the Government body which decides which treatments are funded.

Tamsin Bowers has had three daughters by IVF and runs a business supporting and advising couples looking for IVF treatment.

She welcomed the news, but said she was concerned how the extra treatment was going to be paid for.

Mrs Bowers, from Hadleigh, said: “This is fantastic. Couples have been offered one cycle before, but it was often a postcode lottery as to and whether there was enough money. I’m thrilled it’s going up to three free attempts.

The implications of infertility can be devastating for some, sometimes with unseen consequences for mental health and wellbeing.

Consultant obstetrician Peter Greenwood

“So many other countries now offer three or four free attempts, so it’s about time we fell in line with the rest of Europe.

“My concerns now are over the restrictions on who qualifies for IVF and whether the Government can finance it.”

One couple in three has difficulty conceiving and one in seven undergoes some form of fertility treatment.

Each IVF cycle involves medication being used to stimulate a woman to produce eggs. They are then removed to a laboratory, where they are fertilised with her partner’s sperm.

The Nice policy recommends a maximum of six embryo transfers in total, from the three cycles, something Mrs Bowers estimates will cost health trusts about £15,000 a couple.

Mrs Bowers and her husband Andrew tried to conceive for five years and were told they would have to wait 30 months for NHS fertility treatment .

Eventually, they opted for private treatment and two successful cycles of IVF in Sweden, gave them twins Isabella and Francesca, five, and Azaria, 22 months.

Mrs Bowers, 33, now handles inquiries from 100 couples a week from all over the UK, seeking advice on IVF. They are being told to expect waits of between 18 weeks and two years for NHS treatment.

She said: “If the NHS is going to offer three cycles, then that needs to be within a suitable timeframe.

“It should also not be restricted if one of the couple has had children before, or if they have adopted children. That would just be unfair.”

Clare Brown, chief executive of Infertility Network UK, one of the bodies involved in the decision to allow three cycles, said: “I have been very impressed with the understanding of infertility, the recognition the inequity within the region was unacceptable, and the recognition of infertility as something deserving of NHS funding.”

Consultant obstetrician Peter Greenwood is the lead clinician for the group which helped develop the new policy.

He said:“The implications of infertility can be devastating for some, sometimes with unseen consequences for mental health and wellbeing.

“We are offering a potentially big improvement in the lives of many couples, where IVF is clinically the right solution and has the potential to succeed.”

The IVF treatment will be carried out by a private company, with the cost spread fairly across the region’s 14 care trusts. Tenders for the work are currently being invited.