Are couples being conned into IVF fertility treatment?

Fertility pioneer ROBERT WINSTON delivers a devastating attack that will send shockwaves through the health service
• Professor Robert Winston has worked in fertility for 40 years
• Says many couples are being exploited by a grasping, unethical industry
• He believes that the government and NHS are not doing enough to help
Babies are noisy, deprive you of sleep, destroy free time and are extremely expensive. Yet we feel like melting when we see them: their wide, gummy smiles, the adorable way they curl their tiny fingers around your thumb. This is not rational - it's in our genes. The urge to reproduce is burnt into human consciousness. It is innate, instinctual, essentially programmed through evolution.
But what if you are infertile? I have spent nearly 40 years talking and listening to people devastated by their lack of offspring, believing they are not 'proper' women or not 'proper' men. We have made considerable strides in fertility treatment. But the sad fact is that more and more infertile couples are being exploited by an increasingly grasping industry that frequently ignores ethical standards. And neither the Government nor the NHS are doing nearly enough to help.
It is not only some doctors who are responsible. Many commercial practices, run by people who have little or no professional training, are offering homespun treatments that simply do not work.
As a doctor who has been so closely involved with fertility treatment, I deeply regret that in vitro fertilisation (IVF) has become so commercial. I had thought practitioners would be sensitive enough to realise that they were dealing with people at their most fragile.
Such is my anger that I felt compelled to write a book. It will no doubt be very unpopular with some of my colleagues because it is critical of so much medical practice. But my aim is purely to help people to ask their doctors the right questions and to understand the treatment they are offered.
I am proud that Britain led the way in pioneering IVF. But it has become immensely profitable - and the truth about its success rates is frequently hidden. Each IVF treatment is, on average, only successful in under one-third of cases. Of course, it can be repeated - at great cost, often with much anxiety. But people are led to believe that it is the only treatment available to them - and the most successful. This is utterly wrong.
There is excellent evidence that more than half of those referred to IVF could be treated as or more successfully by far cheaper alternatives. If you went to your doctor complaining of chest pain and were immediately referred for open-heart surgery without proper investigation you would think: 'What a dreadful doctor!' That pain might be due to indigestion, chest disease, a sore rib, or a viral infection.
But now the chances are that if you complain of infertility, you will be referred straight to an IVF clinic - where there may be no proper attempt at making a diagnosis.
To fail to find the cause of any symptom is bad, irresponsible medicine. Each cause of infertility - and there are many - may need a different course of action. IVF most frequently fails when the underlying cause is not first established.
The NHS is much to blame. So often, it does not take infertility seriously. The guidelines for treatment are laughable. As soon as possible, patients are shunted into the private sector.
Then there is the cost: unquestionably, IVF should not cost nearly as much as what is commonly charged - anywhere up to £5,000. Even NHS hospitals frequently make a profit that goes to support other services.
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Americans come up with new ways to raise money for IVF

How far would you go to raise money for IVF treatment? It’s no surprise when insurance companies see the word infertility or in-vitro fertilization they run, not wanting to help cover some of the cost. However, about six years ago, Brandi and Shelton Koskie was diagnosed with infertility, and could pay up to $20,000 for in-vitro fertilization, which was not covered by insurance, ABC News reported today. After being told about this news, they came up with a plan, to build a website, and call it BabyorBust.com, and to ask visitors for $1 donations towards their IVF. Soon the couple were being invited to appear on national television and radio shows, raising $7,500 in small donations from all over the world. Through investing and saving money on their own, they did reach their goal of $20,000 within two years. Welcoming their daughter named Paisley on their first IVF attempt, who is now a toddler. “People look in all crazy ways to cover their infertility treatments" Said Ken Mosesian executive director of the American Fertility Association, a nonprofit group. Since health insurance doesn’t cover IVF in most states, couples have come up with new, aggressive ways to raise money, fast, because the more time passes, the less likely a couple is to conceive. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 6.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 45 have fertility issues, which is about 10.9 percent of them. However, only 15 states have laws that require insurance companies to cover infertility treatments, and seven of them specifically exclude IVF, according to the National Infertility Association. Barbara Collura, the president and CEO of Resolve The National Infertility Association, said that they hunt for IVF funds has changed drastically in recent years. Five years ago couples were taking out second mortgages on their homes, going into debt to pay for their IVF treatments, said Mosesian’s colleague, Patricia Mendell, a member of the AFA board of directors. Back then, Barbra’s organization would hold workshops on how hopeful parents could refinance their homes or get personal loans to pay for IVF. However new economic realities make it much harder in today’s world. “Think about how difficult it is now to get credit cards, a lot of things that people could access cash with are either gone or very, very different now. Instead, people are turning to social media to ask their friends, families and strangers for money, either by building a website or just using a Facebook page. One couple even put a valuable Barry Sanders football card for sale on eBay last week to pay for IVF. The positive aspect of this is that people are talking about infertility more than ever before, Collura said. That includes the Koskie's, who have been open about Shelton's birth defect, which prevents his sperm cells from getting into his semen. The couple receives one to two letters a day from couples struggling with infertility. The most interesting one she’s heard about is a San Francisco couple that hosted a political campaign style dinner, charging guests they invited on Facebook and Twitter $35 a plate. Things could get easier for parents struggling to pay for IVF. A bill called the Family Act of 2011 is making its way through Congress, and it would offer a tax credit to help couples with out of pocket costs. Until then, couples like the Koskie's, and others like the Kassebaum’s of Palm Coast, Florida who struggle with infertility will just have to come up with new ways, since insurance companies will not recognize infertility. Article: 29th October 2012 www.examiner.com Photo source: ABC news

New IVF proposals for same sex couples and women up to 42 years

Same-sex couples and women aged up to 42 may soon be eligible for IVF treatment, according to new draft guidelines published today. The proposals were issued by the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and featured prominently in the news, although they also include a range of recommendations not covered by the media. NICE last issued full guidelines on IVF in 2004, but since then there have been advances in the drugs and techniques available. To take these changes and recent evidence into account, NICE has drawn up new extensive guidelines on everything from who should get IVF to the individual drugs that should be used. The provisional recommendations include raising the upper age limit for IVF from 39 to 42 for some women and offering fertility treatments to same-sex couples, people whose disability prevents them having sex and people whose fertility might be damaged by cancer treatment. Despite the tone of some newspaper coverage, the guidelines are currently at a provisional “consultation stage” where outside parties can voice their views on what should be included. The recommendations are not final, and could change significantly before they are officially published later this year. Have the guidelines changed? NICE is the body responsible for setting out the guidance and standards for treating specific diseases and conditions within the NHS in England and Wales. NICE last published full guidance on IVF in 2004, and since then there have been advances in research and fertility treatments, which means there is now a better understanding of different fertility techniques. Further to these developments, NICE has begun updating its guidance on IVF and has released a draft version proposing new recommendations on the way infertility is assessed and treated. The draft update includes several new recommendations. It is important to note that the recommendations in the draft guidance are only provisional, and that these may change following consultation with various organisations and experts in the field, including medical bodies and charities. The final guidelines are set for publication around the end of 2012. What do the new proposals say? The updated draft guidelines released today for public consultation include the following key suggested changes: - extending the upper age limit of women who can receive one cycle of IVF to 42 years old - increasing the number of embryos implanted into the womb during a cycle of IVF - excluding oral ovarian stimulation agents that have previously been recommended - making new groups of the population eligible to receive fertility treatment The draft proposals suggest making IVF available to: - people who are unable to have sexual intercourse (such as those with a physical disability) - people preparing for cancer treatment who may wish to preserve their fertility (some cancer treatments damage fertility) - same-sex couples - people carrying an infectious disease, such as hepatitis B or HIV Under the draft guidelines, some of these groups would be granted access to IVF under slightly different criteria from “conventional infertility treatment”, as their circumstances may warrant modified approaches. For example, the regular eligibility criteria normally applied to freezing eggs would no longer apply when trying to preserve the fertility of women awaiting cancer treatment. When discussing the guidelines, Dr Gill Leng, deputy chief executive at NICE, said: “Infertility is a medical condition that can cause significant distress for those trying to have a baby. This distress can have a real impact on people's lives, potentially leading to depression and the breakdown of relationships. “The aim of these new and updated recommendations is to ensure that everyone who has problems with fertility has access to the best levels of help,” Dr Leng added. Who is currently eligible for IVF? The current 2004 NICE guidelines recommend that three stimulated cycles of IVF treatment should be offered to couples with identified fertility problems or infertility for at least three years if the female partner is aged between 23 and 39 years old. What happens next? The draft NICE clinical practice guideline on fertility will now undergo a period of external consultation until July 2012. Relevant interested parties and experts in the field are invited to make comments on the guidelines if they feel there are elements that may need reviewing or altering. When published, the update will replace some, but not all, of the original guideline. The guideline is likely to be finalised towards the end of 2012 and, until final publication of the updated guidelines, NHS bodies should continue to follow the recommendations set in the current 2004 guidelines Article: 1st August 2012 www.eastlothiannews.co.uk

21 year old frozen sperm worked after only one cycle of IVF

The news could hardly have been more devastating for policeman John Powell. Diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 32, he was given only six months to live and told that aggressive chemotherapy would leave him infertile.
That was 21 years ago – and now he and his wife are celebrating the arrival of a daughter. Mr Powell had a sperm sample frozen before he began the treatment and, when he was finally given the all-clear after two decades, it was used to create baby Jasmine.

‘We couldn’t be happier – she is a wonder of medical science,’ said Mr Powell at home with wife Chenphen in Orpington, Kent. ‘I look at little Jasmine and think she is nothing less than miraculous. I honestly didn’t believe she was real until the moment she was born and I saw her face. Now I hold her and think she is part of me from 20 years ago, before I had chemotherapy.

‘It’s astonishing that something as beautiful and perfect as Jasmine could come out of a time that was so painful and difficult.’ For Mr and Mrs Powell, the birth of their daughter on February 20 is even more of a wonder because they had enough money to fund only one cycle of IVF.

They were also fighting against the clock because strict rules meant Mr Powell’s sperm would have had to be destroyed when he reached the age of 55. Medical staff at the Bridge Centre in London, where they underwent the treatment, believe it is a British record for 20-year-old sperm to be successful in its first cycle.

Trevor White, an engineer from Manchester, became a father in 2004 after his sperm had been frozen for 21 years. However baby Daniel was conceived after four separate rounds of IVF.

‘I never thought we would be lucky enough for it to work,’ said 53-year-old Mr Powell, a former superintendent with the Metropolitan force.
‘I didn’t allow myself to believe it had been a success until the moment Jasmine was born.’
Mr Powell already had a daughter, now 23, with his first wife when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1990. They split a few years later and after a period alone he visited Thailand, where friends introduced him to Chenphen.
They married in March 2008 but only after he warned her that they could probably not have a family.

Mrs Powell, 36, said: ‘John explained to me that his cancer meant we were probably not going to be able to have a baby. ‘Obviously I was upset but I loved John so much that all I could think about was our future life together, if that was without children then that was okay.
‘But we knew there was a chance of having a baby with the frozen sperm. I knew we only really had one chance of it working so I didn’t really believe it would.
‘It was so unexpected when we found out I was pregnant, John had a huge smile on his face and it was obvious how happy he was.’ Mr Powell, a keen runner who has coached athletes to world championship level, had the sperm sample frozen in April 1991 and it was exactly 20 years later when his wife found she was pregnant.

He is the first Briton to survive a pioneering treatment. Bone marrow was drained from four holes drilled into his pelvis at Guy’s Hospital in London before he was given extremely high doses of chemotherapy. Months later the bone marrow – which had been frozen – was transplanted back into his body and his long road to recovery began.

Mr Powell kept a diary throughout the whole traumatic period of his treatment. He said: ‘I was confronted with the prospect of having just six months to live or having a chance of survival if I took the new treatment. I was determined to fight. It was a terrible time and it has only been since we were expecting Jasmine that I have been able to look at the diary again.’

The couple plan to fly to Thailand in September to show their daughter off to Mrs Powell’s mother. ‘She was crying down the phone when I told her Jasmine had been born,’ said Mrs Powell. ‘It is her first grandchild. I don’t know how she is going to wait until September.’

Fertility clinics overcharging couples desperate for children

Fertility clinics are charging women who want to have children three times the actual cost of their treatment – with the NHS as guilty as private practitioners in exploiting desperate couples.

The accusation comes from the fertility pioneer Lord Robert Winston, who today launches a scathing attack on the high cost of fertility treatment in the UK and the unfettered use of expensive, unproven tests by private clinics.

The Labour peer and former head of the NHS IVF clinic at Hammersmith Hospital said there was a "huge amount of exploitation going on" and that some of the charges were a "scandal". "A combination of avarice on the part of the clinics and desperation on the part of the women is driving this market," he said in an interview with The Independent.

Figures show over 45,000 women had IVF in 2010, with 60 per cent paying for themselves and 40 per cent treated on the NHS. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommends that eligible women aged from 23 to 39 be offered three cycles of treatment on the NHS but primary care trusts vary widely in how closely they follow the guidance.

For the majority of patients, who must pay privately, the average basic cost of treatment is £2,500 a cycle in clinics run by the NHS and £3,500 in private clinics. The price of drugs and tests is added to the bill which can double the cost. Lord Winston said: "My view is that both NHS and private clinics are charging much more than the cost of delivering the treatment." He calculated the costs, taking account of salaries and overheads, for a large unit treating 2,000 patients a year where economies of scale meant it could carry out treatment more efficiently.

"I costed the salaries very generously and concluded you could deliver treatment for £700 per cycle. Adding in the overheads [equipment, materials, rent] takes that to £1,200 to £1,300 a cycle. "NHS clinics are charging their private patients around £2,500 a cycle and private clinics around £3,500 a cycle. It is pure exploitation. The NHS is basing its fees not on what it costs but on what it thinks the market will bear."

He said some clinics were charging annual fees of £350 to store frozen embryos and eggs when liquid nitrogen cost 70 pence a flask and the storage costs amounted to no more than £10 a year. "It is a scandal," he said.

Lord Winston also attacked the growing use of experimental techniques for which there was little evidence by private clinics trying to enhance their success rates. "There are no randomised controlled trials and without trials we cannot know that they work. Can you imagine going into hospital with cancer and a doctor saying, 'I am going to give you this treatment because I think it might work?'

"If you are doing experimental treatment there should be a cast-iron rule that you don't charge vast sums to the patient. What they are doing is profiting from something that has not been trialled." Responding to the criticism, Simon Fishel, managing director of Care Fertility, the largest private provider of IVF in the UK, challenged Lord Winston to defend his own private practice at the Royal Masonic Hospital during the 1990s. "Why did he charge what he charged then? His clinic was not achieving the best success rates but charged among the highest prices."

Mr Fishel said the ethics of using new tests on patients for which there was only anecdotal evidence was one he "wrestled with". He was the first to use a screening technique called array-comparative genomic hybridisation, which led to the birth of a baby to a mother whose 13 previous attempts at IVF had failed. "Anecdotal evidence is never enough. But you can't always start off with [better] evidence. When was sperm injection ever proven to be safe before it was introduced in the UK? The largest cause of miscarriage is chromosomal abnormality. If we can screen out embryos which are chromosomally abnormal, the patient may have a better chance [of giving birth].

"If we were paying credence to Robert Winston's view we wouldn't be treating patients and we wouldn't have won the Nobel Prize [awarded to Sir Robert Edwards in 2010 for the world's first IVF baby born in 1978]. In the end treatment must be evidence-based but it doesn't mean you have to start off from there." Lord Winston said all the money raised from his private work had gone to charity and was ploughed back into treating NHS patients. "I raised millions of pounds. I don't think I could sleep at night paying into my personal account the large sums that women are paying for treatment."

IVF treatment conceivable changes

Getting fertility treatment on the NHS could be about to become more difficult. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is updating its guidance on infertility treatment and is due to publish new recommendations in February.

Current guidance says that women aged 23 to 39 who have been trying for a baby for a year without success should be offered three cycles of IVF. But provision for the one in seven couples in the UK which has difficulty conceiving is patchy. Campaigners fear criteria for treatment may be tightened under the new guidelines. In addition, they say the NHS reforms which include plans for GPs to take over commissioning of services could exacerbate the existing postcode lottery.

Susan Seenan, deputy chief executive of the Infertility Network, said IVF must be commissioned nationally to ensure equality of access: "IVF treatment is the only example of an accepted medical intervention that is routinely rationed. Local commissioning of fertility services will only serve to widen this postcode lottery, further entrenching inequalities in the health service."

Case study: 'The treatment is hugely expensive'

Gill Tinsdeall and her husband Mark spent £20,000 on five failed attempts at IVF before turning to adoption. "It was absolutely shattering. IVF treatment is hugely expensive. We were able to afford it by going without things but it is a huge amount of money." Gill, a human resources manager and Mark, who works for a water company, began treatment in West Yorkshire in 2007. She was then 34, and though one cycle of treatment was offered on the NHS, there was a year-long waiting list and they felt they could not wait. They paid around £3,000 as private patients to be treated at their local NHS hospital, but were unsuccessful. Another attempt at a private clinic led to a pregnancy but Gill miscarried.

Two failed attempts with donor eggs followed, and a final attempt, paid for this time by the NHS, was also unsuccessful. Gill said: "The fight to get access to NHS treatment added hugely to the stress. The only thing that kept me going was the friends I met through Infertility UK. They helped me through the nightmare." Contact infertilitynetworkuk.com

Article: 26th December 2011 www.independent.co.uk

Read more about alternatives to IVF such as natural fertility and home insemination

Infertile woman desperate for a baby refused IVF as her partner has a son

A fashion designer has been left distraught after she was turned down for IVF funding because her partner already has a son from a previous relationship.
Susi Henson, 33, is unable to conceive naturally as she suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome, which causes cysts to form on her ovaries. She and her partner Jay Nightingale visited their GP and were referred for treatment.

But after a six-month wait, the couple were told by health bosses their funding request had been turned down because Mr Nightingale, 40, has a 20-year-old son whom Ms Henson has never met. This means they will have to find £7,500 to pay for the treatment privately.

Health guidance organisation the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends all couples with fertility problems aged between 23 and 39 should be allowed three courses of IVF paid for by the NHS. However, NHS Nottinghamshire County stipulates that couples who have a child from a previous relationship are not eligible.

Miss Henson, from Nottingham, said today: 'How can we not be classed as a childless couple? Jay's son lives in Wales, and I've never met him. 'It is a totally unfair system. If I lived in another part of the country I would be able to get funding.

'But the health authorities here won't allow for it. I believe it is totally wrong. It's discriminatory, a complete postcode lottery.' Miss Henson, who owns a corset-making firm, is now calling for the treatment to be made available for all infertile couples. She said: 'I'm sure I'm not the only one out there having these issues. I'm doing this not just for ourselves but for everyone else out there, men and women.

'The condition I have is a disease so treatment should be covered. 'My partner and I are both self-employed and are having to save a lot of cash to be able to think about paying for treatment. 'There must be many out there who cannot afford it. It isn't right.'

Miss Henson has been told that, before any IVF treatment, she will need a year-long course of the drug colmid. Treatment including IVF and the drug would cost £7,500.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/pc2nIH

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.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/l1ug8k

IVF postcode lottery, slammed by fertility expert

A top Manchester fertility expert has slammed the results of a parliamentary report which revealed the extent of the IVF ‘postcode lottery’ in the region.
Professor Brian Lieberman, who founded Britain’s first fully-funded NHS IVF unit in 1982, hit out, saying it’s ‘wholly unacceptable’ that couples are being denied the treatment they need.

He spoke out after a new study by a cross-party group of MPs showed Stockport was one of just five NHS trusts which does not offer IVF to couples struggling to have a baby.

Bosses at NHS Stockport stopped funding cycles of treatment for new patients as part of a drive to save £300,000 a year.

Professor Lieberman, who went on to launch private infertility clinic Manchester Fertility Services based in the city centre, said: "IVF for some reason isn’t seen as essential treatment by some PCTs.

"What this means is that infertile couples in the region are now being faced with a stark choice – pay privately or don’t have a family. It’s wholly unacceptable.

"IVF was pioneered to overcome infertility, which is an illness and which people don’t any control over.

"It’s not a ‘lifestyle’ illness, and it’s about time PCTs recognised this."

While Manchester Fertility Services has seen an increase in the number of patients from funded-cut areas such as Stockport, Professor Lieberman says he would rather they received the right treatment in the first place.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/m2qO3e

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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Change the rules for IVF and stop the postcode lottery

Sarah Johnson looks on longingly when she sees mums out for a stroll with their babies. For years it’s been her dream to have a precious child of her own.
But the 34-year-old has a host of health problems which means her fertility is low. She’s known for a long time that her chances of conceiving naturally are poor but that doesn’t make it easier to bear.

Starting a family has always been part of the plan for Sarah and husband Levi and they’ve been trying for a baby throughout their six year marriage. Yet as each month has passed, any last hope they’ve had has been slipping away and Sarah now fears she’ll never be able to hold a baby of her own in her arms.

For thousands of desperate couples, the only route left open when fertility problems get in the way is IVF. The Johnsons thought IVF was their only hope of having a child too.

But those hopes now lie in tatters because Sarah doesn’t meet the tough criteria set out on an NHS Portsmouth tick list. ‘I’m devastated,’ says Sarah. ‘I know I can’t have children naturally and IVF was my only option. ‘We had been going for tests and we thought we were going to be put forward for IVF but then the consultant just turned round and said “I’m sorry there’s nothing more I can do for you”. He said we didn’t meet the criteria.’

She adds: ‘They have a tick list you have to meet and if you fall down on any one that’s that. I think it’s completely unfair. ‘There are reasons I don’t meet the criteria. They should base it on the individual person, not a tick list.’

Sarah was told she had polycystic ovaries around 13 years ago and that means cysts on her ovaries stop her from ovulating frequently. That makes conceiving naturally harder and she also has endometriosis, which is a problem affecting the womb lining. For a lot of the time she’s in pain and both conditions also make it hard for her to lose weight. To add to her problems, being overweight also makes it more difficult to conceive.

Toread more go to http://bit.ly/mgIAlI

IVF loan adverts spark fury in New Zealand

Kiwis who've struggled to conceive are up in arms over ASB's new ad offering loans for IVF treatment. But why do would-be parents have to pay in the first place? Adam Dudding reports.
WHEN HE first saw the slickly sentimental new ad from ASB bank offering loans for fertility treatment, Roger Gray was ironing his work shirts. He was so shocked he almost dropped the iron.

"I thought it was disgusting," says the Auckland father-of-three, two of whose children were born with the help of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). "To me, it was exploitative of people who are in a desperate situation."

Gray and his wife went through their fertility treatment in Australia, where couples receive government subsidies that slash the cost of IVF to around $2000 per "cycle" for an unlimited number of cycles. In New Zealand would-be parents are fully funded for just one or two attempts, the waiting lists can be long, and eligibility depends on a stringent set of criteria. And outside the public system, they face spending $10,000-$12,000 of their own money per attempt. Private health insurers don't cover IVF (except, curiously, through one scheme offered only to employees of NZ Police).

"The government system here of restricting the number of opportunities to publicly fund IVF is not good," said Gray. "And then ASB is taking advantage of this to make money out of desperate people. I think it showed the worst side of banking."

Gray was just one of several parents with an insider's knowledge of fertility treatment who told the Sunday Star-Times they were uneasy, or even angry, about the 60-second IVF ad, in which a photogenically mopey couple struggling to conceive sell their vintage car to fund IVF, and then when that fails borrow ASB money for another cycle which culminates in triplets. The ad, which ASB says is based on the "real life" experiences of customers, is part of a major rebranding of the bank that seems set on portraying ASB not so much as a large Australian bank that lends and borrows money in exchange for interest, but as a quasi-benevolent organisation focused on "creating futures", and perhaps creating the odd set of triplets.

By Thursday afternoon, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) had received seven complaints about the ad, which first screened last Sunday, on the grounds that it was socially irresponsible, exploited a vulnerable audience or encouraged an unrealistic expectation of a successful outcome to fertility treatment.

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Women are prepared to pay up to £50,000 on IVF to have a baby

Women are prepared to pay up to £50,000 to realise their dreams of motherhood, a study has found.
Most would take on extra work, sell possessions and sacrifice pensions to fund fertility treatment if they had difficulty conceiving. And they would be willing to spend an average of £15,000 on IVF – with one in ten prepared to shell out as much as £50,000. One in five would even consider moving house if it meant better fertility treatment on the NHS.

More than 90 per cent said they would cut back on holidays, eating out, clothes and beauty products to pay for treatment. And it is the grandparents-to-be who they are increasingly turning to for financial help, with 30 per cent of women having treatments asking their parents or other family members for money, up from 14 per cent last year. Three quarters of women think the cost in the UK is too expensive, 30 per cent said they would look at going abroad for treatment. In Hungary a single cycle costs £1,464.

The poll of more than 2,000 women aged 30 to 45, carried out by Red magazine, found that more than half of those questioned had tried to conceive – and 39 per cent had encountered problems.

The Red Annual National Fertility Report also revealed that one in ten women who struggled to conceive had undergone some sort of fertility treatment, spending an average of £8,678.

Nearly 45,000 cycles of IVF are performed in Britain each year. In the private sector, each one can cost more than £5,000. The survey found 95 per cent of women thought the differences in NHS IVF provision, depending on where you lived, was unfair with 22 per cent saying they would move house or consider moving to get better IVF treatment for free.

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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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IVF treatment: How do we decide who deserves a baby?

New criteria to assess women eligible for IVF treatment may not solve old problems
IVF on NHS for women over 40" ran one front-page headline last week. A casual reader of that and similar articles could have been forgiven for concluding that the rule banning women aged 40 or over from accessing state-funded fertility treatment is being scrapped. It isn't, but it might be.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has recently begun looking at whether its existing guideline on fertility needs to be updated. First issued in 2004, this medical world equivalent of a tablet of stone has always been tinged with controversy. Its main recommendation – that women aged 23 to 39 meeting set medical criteria should get up to three cycles of IVF on the NHS – is widely ignored by the local NHS organisations in England and Wales who are meant to approve it and foot the bill.

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