Couples spend thousands on IVF for a baby which might never arrive

Every year, thousands of desperate couples sacrifice their time, emotions and hard-earned cash in pursuit of their dream baby. The average IVF spend is £5,000, with some couples forking out up to £40,000 for a child that might never arrive. Almost 40,000 women had IVF treatment in the UK in 2008.
While around 15,000 children are born every year as a result of the treatment, shockingly just a quarter of IVF cycles end with a baby being born safely. Encouraged by success stories, many childless couples desperately want to believe that impressive records from certain clinics make a baby a real likelihood, rather than just a possibility.

And while most of us don’t have the budget to pay for endless IVF cycles – not to mention the physical strain and emotional turmoil that go with them – there is no doubt some couples will do everything in their power to conceive. It is this level of desperation that some people fear is being exploited by some UK fertility clinics.

Dr Marilyn Glenville, an expert on improving fertility naturally, says: “Some clinics are doing extra tests when they’re not necessary. “But would-be parents are desperate and will try and pay for anything when they don’t know how much is absolutely necessary.”

For Sian Buchanan and her husband Tony, 46, the need for a baby turned into rounds of tests, treatment and IVF cycles that took them to the depths of despair.

Sian, 42, explains: “Being told you can’t have a baby makes you want one even more, and it’s hard to be told you can’t be a mother. “When me and Tony started looking into fertility treatment we had only been trying for six months, but, at 37, I knew I had to get a move on if we were to have a family.

“And although we knew we were entitled to a cycle of IVF on the NHS, we were prepared to pay whatever it took to conceive. “In that situation, you almost become numb to handing over your credit card.”

For Sian, there was no hesitation when an NHS fertility consultant advised them to go to a private clinic rather than wait for their free cycle. At her age, she was convinced she couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

She recalls: “We chose a London clinic that had an incredibly impressive success rate for IVF. “We had tests, scans and blood tests, but when we came to the point of starting IVF, having built us up, they suddenly told me my hormone levels were too high.

“Even though we’d paid £1,000 by this point, we walked away as we didn’t feel they were giving us enough clear information, and suspected they were more concerned about their success rates than me getting pregnant. “We felt we were handing over money without knowing what was really happening.

“It was so disheartening. We then started private IVF treatment through a hospital, at a cost of £6,000, but this not only didn’t work but it also left me with an infection that landed me in hospital. “It was a very lonely and desperate time for us.

“After spending that much money, the feeling of disappointment and isolation was huge.” Apart from the cost and the trauma, it seems the biggest problem is a lack of information and support for couples, resulting in misinformed decisions. Some would-be parents are even missing free treatment.

Couples contemplating IVF should do research in advance, says Camille Strachan, whose charity To Hatch provides details on NHS fertility policies, criteria for each area, plus clinics’ success rates.

She explains: “When you first visit your GP to discuss options, it pays to do your homework first or you could end up losing out on free NHS treatment. “There’s a referral period, which in some areas is six months, but for others can be up to two years.

“Your age can affect whether or not you’ll be referred – if a woman’s not on a waiting list by 38, there’s a good chance she’s not going to be seen in time. “And in some boroughs you must have lived there at least a year.”

NHS guidelines recommend offering eligible couples up to three cycles of IVF, but budget constraints have been so severe that several health trusts have been forced to restrict access to fertility treatment, with some suspending artificial insemination altogether. It’s no surprise that up to 80% of IVF work is done privately, with cycles costing £3,500 on average – and extras, including hormone treatments, cost thousands more.

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IVF clinics in London are overcharging according to Lord Winston

IVF clinics in London are "cashing in" by overcharging patients who want to store frozen embryos, according to a top fertility doctor.
Clinics are advised to use one embryo at a time to reduce the health risks connected to multiple births, but couples desperate to conceive often choose to freeze embryos for future use. Lord Robert Winston, the fertility treatment pioneer, said that some clinics were taking advantage of these "one at a time" regulations. He revealed that one clinic charged £915 for embryo freezing plus £325 for storage in liquid nitrogen which "costs a few pence a litre".

Speaking in a debate in Parliament on the future of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Professor Winston said:

"Embryo freezing will be increasingly required if we are to limit the number of pregnancies that result in multiple births by transferring just one embryo each time." The Labour peer added: "One of the key issues which the HFEA has not dealt with is the high cost of IVF treatment. In my view, it is a scandal.

"There are clinics that treat patients for around £3,400 a cycle. It is only when you look at their websites that you see that they are charging up to £1,100 to £3,200 for drugs that should be obtained on contracts at around £500 to £700 per cycle." Lord Winston said IVF was a "highly privileged treatment" because "hard-pressed" NHS trusts cannot afford to offer the three free cycles of IVF recommended.

Many clinics only offer single embryo transfers since the new HFEA issued advice on limiting multiple births three years ago. Figures published last week reveal multiple pregnancies fell to 22 per cent last year from 26.7 per cent in 2008. Lord Winston also said that some clinics are offering treatments which are not backed by scientific evidence. These include immune therapy which costs up to £3,000 and is based on the belief that a woman's immune system may reject a pregnancy and lead to miscarriage


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IVF postcode lottery as NHS cuts costs

Childless couples are facing a widening postcode lottery after NHS officials ordered GPs to slash the amount of fertility treatment on offer to cut costs, stark new figures show.
Women in some areas are being denied access to the treatment altogether while others are facing new restrictions which appear to flout national guidelines.

One in five local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) said they had cut the number of IVF procedures they had funded over the past three years, the study by the health magazine, Pulse, found.

Some trusts have frozen funding for IVF completely while reduced the number of cycles on offer.

Funding chiefs blamed the economic downturn and the looming spending cuts for the decision but campaigners said many infertile couples were now being denied a “fundamental right”.

Under guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence (Nice) GPs are advised to offer women under 40 up three cycles of IVF on the NHS.

But several trusts have recently ordered family doctors to cut the number of cycles on offer to two or one.

Nine PCTs – in Luton, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Waltham Forest, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Portsmouth, Bolton and West Kent – admitted they had not funded any IVF treatment for two years, acccording to the Pulse study.

NHS Warrington, which recently stopped all funding for IVF until at least 2011 insisted its priority had to be maintaining “high quality local healthcare”.

NHS Brighton and Hove, which now funds only two cycles, said the limit was in line with a region-wide policy across the south east of England.

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Baby arrives after 8 rounds of IVF at a cost of £100,000

'We never gave up hope': Parents celebrate arrival of baby girl after spending £100,000 on EIGHT rounds of IVF
After spending tens of thousands of pounds over the best part of a decade on seven failed IVF courses, the experts were clear on one thing - Sarah Francis would never have a baby.

The judgement seemed even more clear-cut after she learned she had a rare condition which made her immune system attack any unborn child. But she and her husband Darren, 38, decided to try just one more time - bringing their total spend on treatments to £100,000 - and were rewarded with daughter Evie.

Today, as she hugged her precious child, Mrs Francis had an important message for other would-be parents faced with the same agonising process. 'We want other people going through the same thing to know there can be a happy ending. Just don't give up,' she said.

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