AIBU to think it's unfair same sex couples can get IVF on the NHS but not single women?

[CateB78]

https://news.sky.com/story/fertility-inequality-how-single-women-are-facing-ivf-discrimination-and-financial-strain-12996293

Did you read the article? Same sex couples and single women both have to do artificial insemination to prove infertility, but the government will pay for that only for same sex couples, not for single women.

Yanbu. Being gay isn’t a form of infertility. There really is no difference between a single woman who doesn’t want to be with a man to conceive and someone who is gay. Single women shouldn’t have been left behind with this new policy.

No different to same sex couples getting it vs single people. Your post is pretty homophobic, in that sense.

Life is unfair in myriad ways. The benefits that support families hardly give them a lovely life - I know, I work with such families. Every day is a struggle for them. Should we stop their support because they have children? Perhaps we should just take those children off them and put them in the Poor House - a return to Victorian values!
Life, for millions if not billions of people, is about survival.

YANBU. However women in same sex couples have had to campaign for a long time win this right to funded IUI so unfortunately probably a similar campaign for single women will need to be pursued to get equal treatment for them.

I know, it’s almost as if influenza, meningitis, measles etc aren’t life-threatening at all.

this is the crux of it.

Oh dear OP, its shit when you inadvertently let your homophobia show isnt it.

My point was about supposed funding being made anvailable after people apparently sued the NHS to get money to pay for IVF.

Absolutely this.

Please read the article. Same sex couples and single women both have to prove infertility though artificial insemination which can cost thousands of pounds, but the government has committed to funding it for same sex couples but not for single women who will still have to pay.

Putting my hard hat on here
Personally I don’t think anyone should get IVF on the NHS.

I think less not more people should qualify - the only groups I really think should be funded is those who are under 40 and infertile having tried conventionally for 2 years. Ideally even younger that that as a cut off. The vast majority of people I know who have had ivf are because they left it too late to conceive naturally - circumstances might be sad to the reason but ultimately we choose our lives and not prioritising parenthood under 35 means it's like roulette

@CateB78 it is offered where there is a medical problem. Being blunt, a single woman could, with no medical issues, get pregnant by a one night stand if she was happy to be a single parent. And really, that’s not much different to IVF, is it, but it’s free?

If it can be argued that not having a child could create mental health issues which may life threatening, as some folk suggest, then it could be argued that having obvious issues with your breasts (far too big for frame, clearly uneven sizes, lack of one or both due to other surgery etc) could also create mental health issues which could be life threatening!

Yes that could be argued , however that wasn’t my point. My mum had breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. That is life threatening.
Many conditions that are treated on the NHS aren’t life threatening , that was the point. We all have conditions that are close to our hearts so clearly will be more emotionally invested in.

Because there isn’t a medical issue related- it’s a biological fact you can’t reproduce a male and male/ female and female - and a child isn’t a right

I interpreted the post differently.
Same sex couples and single women presumably have the same issue - no male to fertilise the egg. So, if same sex couples need assistance to conceive, why shouldn't single women have that same assistance?
I’m guessing the OP didnt think through that actually hetero couples may also have exactly the same issue if the man is sterile.

YANBU.

There is a big difference between couples and single people.

It’s not discrimination to decide that single people aren’t eligible for NHS IVF.

I am a single person. I recognise that, should I fancy trying to get pregnant, continuing to be single will impact upon my ability to conceive and I should have to pay for any treatment I require to compensate for that choice. Even if IUI fails repeatedly and I decide I want IVF, I should just have to pay for it.

There are loads of things I might like -
even desperately want - but I can’t afford them. That, unfortunately, is life.

Same sex couples can only get IVF on the NHS if they are infertile and have been through 12 privately funded rounds of IUI (in most areas - it is a bit of a postcode lottery). They have to have fertility problems, just like same sex couples. They don't just automatically get it.

This is the second report in days about access to IVF, yesterday it was a Stonewall report on asexual couples wanting funded IVF and it was discriminatory to not do so. Today it is single people.

A mere coincidence maybe.

The article says the government has committed to funding IUI for them.

I wouldnt be at all surprised if it becomes a race to the bottom - if any unfairness is proven between different groups, then the funding for all groups will just be removed.
Once upon a time it used to be possible to have lots of minor procedures carried out under the NHS such as removal of warts / verruccas, removal of visible non cancerous moles, and other such things. Whilst not life threatening in any way, they can be debilitating. Now none of this is available on the NHS. For many people, they cant even get basic NHS dental treatment any more!
So, equal treatment may well be the withdrawal of ALL NHS funded IVF treatment for anyone.

Should the nhs fund abortions in cases where there is no medical justification (eg danger to health/ life of mother or foetus?)

It’s all a bit ‘and this is why we can’t have nice things’, isn’t it?

Or we could just be absolutely open in rejecting claims that(otherwise) heterosexual people who just don’t want to have sex are an oppressed group subject to awful discrimination

Ah I see - I've read the article now.

So previously, it was the same rule for single women and same sex couples - they had to pay for private IUI to prove infertility.

Now, the government have committed to improving funding for same sex couples to access NHS treatment, but they haven't done the same for single women.

Just to be clear that this is the problem - they have improved things for same sex couples but not for single women.

I'd say it's a step in the right direction and to be honest if funding only allows one or the other of these to have access to better funding, same sex couples should take priority because a couple is (as a general rule) going to be in a better position to raise a child than a single woman - not saying in all cases before I get jumped on - but statistically - and that is all you can go by when making these decisions.

I do hope in the future that everyone who wants/ needs fertility treatment will have access to it, but I'm assuming that this is a decision based on funding constraints.