Disgusted with IVF Charging.

[POP2005]

My wife and I have been trying for a baby for around 3 years, at the moment she is taking Clomid to assist with Ovulation.

We are hopeful that the Clomid will be a sucsess, but we have been exploring all avenues. I stumbled across the HFEA website that lists all assisted conception units in the UK and I was shocked to see the NHS charging first time patients for IVF treatments.

Searching for some kind of campaign on the net was fruitless but through search engines I found many discussions on the matter and I was shocked to see the amount of hatred people have been spouting on various discussion boards about the cost of providing free IVF on the NHS for childless couples, they estimate the cost at £400m.

£1,500 seems to be the average cost (not including drugs) and for a childless couple, intially, this is a small price to pay as we are desperate to be parents but where does it stop?

I have even seen adverts from loan shaks offering IVF loans to desperate couples.

We could end up in extreme debt and still have no baby at the end of it.

Yet if I was to drink myself into oblivion and screw up my liver the treatment and operation would be free, hell, if I decided to have my gender "reassigned" I could even get a free sex-swap op on the NHS, smokers are offered free cessation assistance on the NHS and we all know that cancer treatments for smokers are also free.

Infertility in most cases is not self inflicted yet couples are forced into debt to pay for treatments - people who have made themselves ill through stupidity are treated free.

The estimated £400m cost is a small price for the goverment as IVF children grow up to be taxpayers.

Its time to End the postcode lottery now.

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I thought that was serious for a moment!

If we are really going off on tangents MAF won't be happy with any outcome except one that says it was a conspiracy... so what is the point? That man will never be satisfied. Certainly doesn't want to accept the tiniest shred of responsibility that it was a driver in his employ involved in the crash not that I think many people could drive a large car, whilst fleeing crazy paparazzi, at 100mph next to a series of concrete pillars without running a high risk of hitting one....

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Surely wanker and tosser are suitable words for a masturbation thread Post on nice cake making thread or something instead to be called fluffy bunnykins or the like!

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Oh ok then will stop

Going to bed now for my afternoon nap (what a granny)

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Ah but I AM a stupid slut

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OK am wanker, stupid slut and tired old granny going to bed cos am worn out with all this wanking and general sluttishness. See ya later!

Twinkie, firstly I did not mention "cross-dressers" in my initial posting, a cross dresser and someone undergoing gender reassignment are two different things.

Bossykate, at todays prices a 20 a day smoker over 20 years will spend £31,025 how much of that actually goes toward the NHS? I see you still haven't backed up your comment.

Nobody has said NOT to treat cancer patients or any other idiot who has decided to half kill themselves, I am saying that if someone who has made themselves ill can get treatment which am damn sure costs more than £1,500 why cant couples be given one free cycle of IVF.

Gender reassignment is NOT the result of making yourself ill.

:headbashingsmilie

So someone who wants a sex-change op should be treated on the NHS? It is not the result of maing yourself ill, correct, but it isnt worthy of free NHS treatment.

You really want me to answer?

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pop2005 - you may not be saying that smokers shouldn't get treatment, but you are implying that your IVF treatment would be more worthy. That is the cause of the upset, and the reason for my self-righteous comment earlier.

And transexuality is an actual medical condition - the operation succes rates (about 95% I think) attest to that.

98% SP, success rate for IVF: 20%

pop2005, as i said before, tinker has backed up my comment. since i know she is in a good position to comment on this, i don't see the need to cite further information. it is actually you who have not backed up your assertions.

For anyone unable to have children like myself, I think is its just as worthy for IVF to be done free on the NHS. Its not a case of being self rightous, its a case of every bloody month going through the pain of finding out that once again Im not bloody pregnant again, then when going to the hospital for help and they are giving you the option of IVF but its got to come out of my pocket.

From reading some of the posts on here its obvious the ones shouting the hardest about IVF not being as important as treating a Cancer patient has obviously not gone through the pain of not being able conceive.

Suffering from cancer and being unable to reproduce are both traumatic experiences. One is no more important than the other. Both needs treatment from the NHS but luckily for the Cancer patient they dont have to worry about financing their own treatment like I have to.

Astrogirl, I'm hugely sorry for the pain you have to go through but I've got to disagree - it's just not the same as suffering from cancer. It's pretty unlikely you're going to die from infertility.

have to agree with flamingo.

um - astrogirl - I have not suffered from infertility but I have suffered from cancer. I went through surgery, 6 months of chemo and 4 weeks of radiotherapy which has, touch wood, saved my life. I find your self-centred comparison between cancer and IVF very offensive. Having children is a privilege but it is not a right. If you are unable to have your own there are thousands of children in this country who could benefit from the time and attention of people like you, as adoptive parents or voluntary helpers.

I agree that unless you have been through the enormous pain, both mental AND physical, that suffering from infertility causes, you are unlikely to understand why those of us who do suffer feel so passionately about it. It's a pain that knaws at your very soul and is completely unpassifiable. Whilst you remind yourslef about the things you should be fortunate for, this pain does not go away. The worst of it being when the NHS say that yes they can help you, but ever so sorry, but they can't, because there isn't the funding. For me and my dp, we were denied because he has children from a previous marriage AND had a vasectomy. Initially when I lived in the south we were catergorically told we would have to pay for a reversal, but there was no point, and that we should go straight into IVF, that we would also have to pay for.

We then moved to the north of the country, and luckily our new GP was very understanding and got us the reversal on the NHS. Over time it has been proved that it WAS a success, not fully, but enough! None the less, we were ultimately told that we would have to tacke the ICSI route and again we would have to pay AND join the waiting list. For all the same reasons I showed before. I was ENRAGED. I wrote to the hospital, to my local health authority, my MP at the house of commons AND finally the Prime Minister. After well over 18 months of badgering they conceded that as I didn't have any children and as a couple WE didn't have any, then we could have the treatment on the NHS. PLUS, they changed the local policies which now state that if the couple are childless, regardless of whether either has children from previous relationships, that they be considered.

OK, so you can't die from infertility, but you can't even begin to compare it to cancer or any other like illness. Neither should funding be withheld when they CAN help countless 1000's of couples.

Just my opinion, a passionate one though!