Please or to access all these features

Infertility

Our Infertility Support forum is a space to connect with others in the same position, discuss causes, treatment and IVF, and share infertility stories of hope and success.

Non NHS funded fertility treatment- would funding help be useful?

28 replies

SZuber · 10/06/2018 22:41

Hello all, I am looking into setting up a charity who will help funding fertility treatment for couples who have been declined funding through the NHS and their only holdback is now to pay for it privately! I just wanted to see if there are any women on here who have experienced this situation at all?

OP posts:
laptopdisaster · 14/06/2018 14:55

I do think you'll run very rapidly and very hard into questions of how to determine who is most 'deserving' of help, which are likely to be highly problematic and challenging to navigate.

This. you could even fall foul of lawsuits for discrimination. Your intentions are good, but really really have you thought this through?

DuchyDuke · 14/06/2018 15:55

@juneybean - at most clinics if same sex couples bring their own donors, they are already exempt from a lot of the gamete donation charges.

Persipan · 14/06/2018 16:16

Speaking as someone needing a sperm donor I'm more than a little squicked out by the idea that I should have to find one myself. But I digress...

Already, in this thread, we've got suggestions that certain people shouldn't be eligible for assistance, including:

  • People who go on holiday
  • People who have a higher than average income
  • Women under 30
  • Women over 30 if they need donor gametes

In other contexts, I've seen opposing views presented - the idea, for example, that if people are on too low an income to afford treatment, they can't afford to have children.

(I'm not taking up or not taking up any of these positions; I just want to highlight it's complicated.)

The reality, I think, is that we all probably have some personal views on who we'd consider a high priority for support, and who we might put lower on that list. Happily, it makes not a blind bit of difference what we think, so we're free to hold those views; it does no harm. But that's why I think this is so complicated - you'd have to arrive at a set of priorities. You'd have to make decisions on all this stuff, in detail, and the decisions will certainly upset and offend a proportion of people.

I'm not saying don't do it, but just, it will be a minefield, so be ready!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page