IVF offered to UK women on NHS

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 25 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Health Secretary welcomes new fertility guidance

New NHS guidelines on IVF treatment may lead the way for thousands more women to access infertility treatment, said Health Secretary, John Reid, today.

Speaking after publication of a new national guideline on fertility services in the National Health Service by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, (NICE), John Reid said:

'I welcome the publication of NICE's guideline and its recommendation about how the NHS should seek to provide IVF. One in seven couples experience problems with conception and I recognise the pain and distress that infertility causes.

'I am glad that NICE itself recognises that the NHS cannot reasonably make this expansion overnight. Our immediate priority must be to ensure a national level of provision of IVF is available wherever people live. As a first step, by April next year I want all PCTs, including those who at present provide no IVF treatment, to offer at least one full cycle of treatment to all those eligible. In the longer term I would expect the NHS to make progress towards full implementation of the NICE guidance.

'In providing this NHS service, as with all others, our priority must be to help those in greatest need. That is why I will be asking the NHS to give local priority to couples who do not have any children living with them.

'This will mean that thousands more couples should be able to have fertility treatment on the NHS whilst enabling the NHS to manage this in a realistic way.'

Related links
NICE clinical guidelines:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/ExternalLink?EXTERNAL_LINK=http%3A//www.nice.org.uk/CG011

Notes to editor

1. The Department of Health confirmed that in implementing the guideline, it would be looking for PCT's to:

- offer all women aged 23-39 who meet the NICE clinical criteria a minimum of one full cycle of IVF from April 2005;

- give priority to couples who do not already have a child living with them.

2. The full NICE guideline, produced in conjunction with the National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Childrens's Health (NCCWCH) outline the types of investigations and treatments that should be available to people with fertility problems. Key recommendations also include:

- Screening all women for chlamydia before they undergo procedures to check if their fallopian tubes are blocked

- Offering women who do not have any history of problems with their fallopian tubes an x ray to see if their tubes are blocked rather than an invasive procedure.

3. Further information on the fertility guideline is available from NICE at the above link.

4. A full cycle is a cycle in which a woman's ovaries are stimulated to produce a number of eggs. The eggs are surgically collected, mixed with sperm in the laboratory, embryos created and transferred to the woman. Viable embryos created in this process but not transferred at that stage are then frozen and may be transferred to the woman at a later stage.

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