Would-be mother loses out in fertility treatment lottery
(sz) Claire Dando is ineligible for IVF on the NHS despite meeting all the criteria
When doctors told Claire Dando she could never conceive naturally she was devastated but she and her husband, Matthew, put their faith in the government’s promise of free fertility treatment to couples like them.
She ticked all the boxes laid down by government guidelines; at 33, she was in the right age group (between 23-39) and had a medically proven problem. She also felt that, since an NHS consultant had misdiagnosed and mistreated the cause of her infertility, setting her back 18 months, her local trust would be sympathetic.
But Ms Dando, a former primary school teacher who has always wanted a large family, was wrong.
Her local authority, North Hampshire, has decided to ignore the health secretary’s advice to all trusts to offer at least one free IVF cycle to infertile couples who qualify under guidelines set by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). Instead, it introduced its own age criteria of women between 36-39. more…
From: »The Guardian«