IVF blow for the childless

12:06pm Monday 30th April 2007

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HUNDREDS of women desperate for help conceiving a child will now have to wait at least another year for their treatment, The Press has learned.

On Tuesday we reported how 300 North Yorkshire women were currently on a waiting list for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) - a service that has been suspended since January by the county's cash-strapped primary care trust (PCT).

It has now emerged that the treatment - often the last hope for childless couples - will now be suspended until at least April next year, when it is up for review. That will be a huge blow for the hundreds of couples who have been waiting on the list, believing they were getting nearer to having the treatment to help them have the child they long for.

National guidelines recommend that all PCTs should offer women up to three cycles of IVF on the NHS, providing they meet certain criteria.

Women usually spend about two years waiting for free IVF treatment in this area, but at least 15 months will have been added to that time because of the service suspension by North Yorkshire and York PCT.

The situation has been described as a "tragedy" by at least one local GP - with the chances of IVF enabling women on the list to conceive getting slimmer the longer they have to wait.

A PCT spokesman explained that investigations for infertility were still available locally. That meant GPs could still refer women to gynaecology services to see if they needed help to conceive.

He added that the organisation was operating an exceptions system so that doctors who felt their patients were urgent cases for IVF - for example, if they were 39 years old, the upper limit for treatment on the NHS, or there were exceptional clinical reasons - they might get treatment. These patients must be referred to the PCT's prior approval panel for exceptional cases.

The Press has launched our Let Your Doctor Decide campaign in protest against this panel, which has the power to reject or approve treatment for patients who have been sent to it by their own doctor.

Earlier this month, we handed in a petition signed by 2,346 to leaders from the PCT, calling for the panel to be scrapped.

Our campaign has been supported by many doctors - both consultants and GPs - who argued the panel was interfering with clinical decisions about the best care for patients.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire and York PCT said: "We obviously recognise the often distressing circumstances around the need for IVF treatment, which is why we have a system in place to ensure that those most in need can still access the treatment."

Patient raps suspension of fertility treatment

"IT'S like a massive, massive ache. Everywhere you go there's a baby and there's pregnant people and there's no getting away from it, ever."

Those were the words of one York woman who is desperate for a baby, but goes through daily heartache after not managing to have one naturally in four years of trying.

Sarah Savory, of Holgate, York, has been now been on the North Yorkshire IVF waiting list since November 2005.

Sarah, 33, was diagnosed with fertility problems in 2004. For more than a year now she has been giving herself painful regular hormone injections to boost her fertility.

She and her husband believed they would be due their treatment later this year, but those hopes have now been dashed after the news the service will not be available again until at least next April.

The couple have now decided to go for private treatment - which they can do and still remain on the NHS list - rather than risk their chances of successful IVF fall even further as Sarah gets older.

She said: "I can understand that they would rather spend the money on cancer treatment, for example. What I really disagree with is how fast they've made this decision. People have been waiting on the list for 18 months and actually it's for nothing.

"I've written to them (the PCT), I've tried to speak to them, I emailed them, but no response, I haven't had the courtesy of a reply. It's really unfair. If I lived in Leeds, this wouldn't have been a problem. I just can't believe it, I'm really upset about it."

Sarah said she felt it did not make financial sense to give her expensive fertility drugs and not IVF treatment - which would automatically put an end to the drugs she is receiving every month. She also felt it was wrong to only offer treatment to women nearing the upper age limit, as there was a much less chance of it working than for a younger woman.