Lack of funding for Infertility in the UK

shantala · Post by **shantala** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:22 pm

hi everyone

as you will all have seen on here over and over again couples have to give up their dream because of MONEY (or lack of!)....i (and a number of other women) think this is a disgrace....in the UK we do not have insurance to cover our attempts and the NHS (national health service) rules are very strict...for example, if either of the couple already have a child, you cannot get funding....so here i am at 21 years of age with a husband who already has a child but who also has very low motility and count, and we cannot get IVF/ICSI on the NHS. we have to pay and have just paid £4500 ish. how? by taking out a loan and selling my husband's motorbike...if this doesnt work (which, lets be fair, the odds are against us!) then i dont know what we'll do....we're looking to take out a second mortgage at the moment so that the pressure is less if this first time doesnt work.....what i'm saying is, just coz my dh has a child with ANOTHER woman...thats not MY child...i didnt carry that little one and give birth to it and raise it...and yet the government is against me...

so....thats just my situation and i know there are 100s more out there that cannot get treatment....too old, too young...blah blah blah (oh and by the way if my dh didnt have a child, i'd be too young to have treatment at our local hospital, which is an hour away...one has to be 39 to get free treatment there!)...

anyway, some of us on the dec/jan thread have thought about doing something about this...i thought about starting up a petition to our government (the lovely Mr Blair) and then stumbled across a petition already going asking for more funding to be allocated to infertility. You can get more information and sign up to this on:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/INFERTILITY/

I've already done so and so have 469 people so far but we need a lot more people than that for our government to take us seriously! Very unfortunately only UK residents can sign up for this....

if you dont agree with this then please accept my apologies...

thanks

shantala x

mom20 · Post by **mom20** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:21 pm

r u shure you cnt get any help on NHS me and DH are on second attempt in May and he has 1 child from a previous relationship although not shure if its because were not married but i would check sorry if you already have just cnt understand how we have 2 trys on NHS but you cnt
mom20

shantala · Post by **shantala** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:40 pm

reallly?????? all the leaflets we were given told us if any of us already have a child we can definitely not get nhs treatment. which hospital are you at?? thanks for letting me know!

(i know my hospital wont treat women on the nhs until they are 39 but i was under the impression that no hospital in the uk treated anyone if either of them already have a child)

xxx

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:46 pm

Hi Shantala

We live in a postcode lottery in this country. I was very lucky to get one treatment on the NHS and my husband has two children from another marriage but I did have to be between the age of 34 and 36! Lucky for me I happened to seek help at the right age. Unfortunately we had a BFN and now we are in the same situation as you in that we are just about to spend about £4500 as well. It depends on where you live as to what will be funded. I will go and put my name to the petition. Good luck with your treatment.

Lee

catwhitfield · Post by **catwhitfield** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:19 pm

Hi shantala,

I live in Hull and I have two free goes on the NHS. I am 27 and myself or my hubby dont have any kids. Our first IVF failed after a biochemical and we have just started stims on our second cycle. The reason why I cannot have children naturally is because of an emergency bowel operation the NHS did on me five years ago. I was not warned my fallopian tubes would be damaged by such surgery and as a result I am infertile due to their negligence! I still only get two free goes on the NHS. The lawyers said I dont have a case. I dont know what we will do if we dont get pregnant this time. I am going to sign the petition too! It is a disgrace there is no help for people like us, we didnt ask for this to happen. It would take the average couple a few years to save the amount of money for one cycle and as the years go on the success rates decrease so why should we get in debt to have a child???

Littlebint72 · Post by **Littlebint72** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:28 pm

Hi Shantala

Unfortunately it does come down to the postcode lottery we play in this country

I've been lucky enough to have to cycles on the NHS in Bedfordshire (with BFN's I add) but I know in other areas close to here you only get one go

My friend just got refused becuse she also has a child but not from the relationship she is in now.

Unfortunately there is also alot of bigoted and ignorant people out there who dont believe its someones 'right' to have a child and therefore the NHS shouldnt pay for it. i would imagine most of these people dont know what its like to want something so bad

I could go on and on and on but i think I'll end my rant here! You know, sometimes this country sucks!! I sincerely hope that your cycle ends with a BFP and then you wont have to get into debt up to your eyeballs again. I wish us ALL the best of luck - here's hoping!

Deb

Lack of funding for Infertility in the UK

Lack of funding for Infertility in the UK

Lack of funding

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