NHS chiefs accused of ‘prioritising’ single women and lesbians as number of straight couples getting taxpayer-funded fertility treatment plunges 28% in a decade
NHS bosses were today accused of adopting IVF policies that are ‘discriminatory’ towards straight parents.
The Daily Mail can reveal that the number of women with male partners undergoing cycles of taxpayer-funded fertility treatment each year has fallen 28% since peaking in 2016.
The decline coincides with the rationing of IVF, with barely any NHS commissioning bodies in England now abiding by official access guidelines.
Desperate to start their own families, the ‘postcode lottery’ has forced some couples to sell their homes to pay up to £20,000 to undergo the treatment privately.
Despite the drop in straight women accessing NHS-backed IVF, the number of single women gifted free fertility treatment has more than doubled in the same time frame.
Almost half of them were aged 18 to 34, meaning they may still have years of natural opportunity left.
Campaigners said the figures were proof prejudicial favouritism had slipped into NHS thinking, although health officials denied the claims and said straight couples are still overwhelmingly the most likely to receive NHS treatment.
Desperate to start their own families, the ‘postcode lottery’ has forced some couples to sell their homes to pay up to £20,000 to undergo the treatment privately. Picture: Close up IVF
Lucy Marsh, from the pro-family research charity the Family Education Trust, told the Daily Mail: ‘It is grossly unfair for lesbian couples and single women to be given priority for NHS IVF treatment.
‘Not only is this discriminatory against straight couples, but it is also not in the best interests of the babies who will be born with the intention of not having a father.
‘All evidence shows children have the best outcomes when they are raised by their biological mother and father within a stable family, so to purposely create fatherless children who are more likely to grow up with emotional issues, is not only selfish, but hardly the best use of taxpayers’ money.
‘If the NHS were more selective on prioritising straight couples suffering with infertility rather than helping lesbians and single women to have a child, we wouldn’t be in the situation where straight couples have to sell their houses to go private.’
In 2023, the most recent year figures are available for, 20,540 cycles of NHS-funded IVF or ICSI – a spin-off treatment that works in a very similar fashion – were handed out.
That is down by around a quarter on 2016, when figures peaked at 27,890.
Over the same time frame, the number of IVF cycles being funded privately has risen by 40%, from 40,075 to 56,175.
It means around one in four cycles are now on the NHS.
Heterosexual couples still make up nearly 90% of all IVF and ICSI treatments
When only looking at straight couples, the number undergoing NHS fertility treatment has dipped from 27,420 to 19,660.
For patients with a female partner, it has jumped from 15 cycles when records began in 2008, to 405 in 2023.
Likewise, for those with no partner, the amount has gone from just 25 cycles to 460 in 2023.
Heterosexual couples still make up nearly 90% of all IVF and ICSI treatments, however.
Officials deny any rationing and say social trends have changed, with a growing trend of women wanting to raise children alone.
While most women in same-sex relationships historically used donor insemination to help them have a baby, they are now using IVF more often.
And although there have been increasing numbers of lesbian couples and singletons having fertility treatment, the HFEA said they were both still less likely than opposite-sex couples to receive NHS funding.
It said 16% of lesbian couples and 18% of single patients had NHS funding for their first IVF treatment, compared with 52% of straight couples aged 18-39.
In 2022, the government promised fairer access to NHS fertility treatment for same-sex couples and single women.
However there are still large numbers of straight couples being forced to use the private sector, which has been steadily increasing over the past decade, minus a blip during Covid.
Experts warn long waiting lists are forcing patients into the private sector, despite each cycle of IVF or ICSI typically costing between £4,000 and £10,000.
Current official National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines state that women under the age of 40 struggling to have a child should get three cycles on the NHS.
But only three parts of the country abide by this access criteria.
The majority of NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), who are allowed to make their own access rules, offer only one cycle of IVF. Success rates for one cycle can be as high as 32% for women in their mid-30s.
Some outright deny it to women over 35. Others even refuse to pay for the procedure if they or their partner already have any children or forbid obese women from trying.
Critics say NHS access should be made available evenly across the board, as the soaring numbers going private show the demand is still there.
Sharon Martin, of Fertility Network UK, said: ‘The key problem is not that one group is being prioritised over another, but that inequality of access remains entrenched.
‘The postcode lottery means people’s chances of starting a family depend far more on where they live than on their own circumstances.
‘What we want to see is the government, NHS and ICB’s commissioners ensuring that the NICE guidelines are followed consistently, so that all patients are treated with fairness.
Ms Marsh added: ‘IVF should be available to straight couples wherever they live in the UK rather than the current situation of being a postcode lottery.
‘However, it must be based on genuinely being unable to conceive naturally, rather than being considered an automatic right for older couples who put their careers ahead of starting a family.’
Julia Chain, chair of the HFEA, said: ‘In the UK, different family groups can access a wide range of reproductive options when starting their fertility journey.
‘While the number of female same-sex couples and single patients having fertility treatment continues to rise, we continue to see lower rates of NHS-funded treatment.
‘While the HFEA does not regulate funding, we encourage those who commission fertility services to review their eligibility criteria and consider whether these have an adverse impact on access to treatment.
‘We also encourage healthcare providers to make sure the information they provide represents the diversity of families and patients accessing treatment, so that everyone can receive an inclusive experience.’
Family campaigners recently slammed ‘grossly discriminating’ plans to give trans men and lesbians access to NHS-funded IVF two years ahead of heterosexual couples.
Under the controversial proposals covering Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, trans men – those born as women who now identify as men – will be automatically assumed to be unable to conceive, as will lesbians and single women.
The proposals are still being developed, but if they go ahead, it means they will be immediately eligible for IVF on the NHS if they meet strict other criteria.
Heterosexual couples, on the other hand, will still have to prove they can’t have a baby naturally within two years.
And in February, it was revealed that patients born female who want to transition may get their eggs frozen for free on the health service – but women who want to wait due to work pressures will not be offered the service.
Instead, their only option is to pay thousands of pounds to have their eggs frozen privately.
Typically only women who face cancer treatment such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy – which can damage future egg production – will have the treatment funded by the NHS.
Even those with medical issues such as endometriosis, a painful condition affecting 1.5million women in the UK which can make it hard to conceive, are often refused funding.
