Can I have a private NHS attempt at IVF whilst waiting for NHS treatment?

[JadeS174]

Hi all,

I was wondering whether I can have a private attempt at IVF whilst waiting for NHS funding. I've been told my wait for NHS funded treatment could be 1 year.

Below is my CCGs criteria that I found online- does the bit in bold mean I'll still be eligible if I have a non-nhs funded cycle? (I assume by this it's means private?)

"Couples will not be funded if either partner has already had three previous fresh cycles of IVF, with or without ICSI, irrespective of how these were funded.
This means that eligible couples will be funded:

• Two fresh cycles of IVF, with or without ICSI, if no previous fresh cycles

have been funded by the NHS, _*or if they have already received one non- NHS funded fresh cycle*_

• One fresh cycle of IVF, with or without ICSI, if the couple has _*already

received one NHS funded fresh cycle or two non-NHS funded fresh cycles*_"

Thank you. XxX

I read it as

You get 2 NHS cycles if you’ve done 1 private cycle

You get 1 NHS cycle if you’ve done 2 private cycles

You get no NHS funding if you’ve had 3 private cycles.

So it looks like each private cycle you do takes away one of your NHS funded cycles

I would just not tell your GP/NHS fertility service that you're having a private cycle? That's what we're doing as our CCG only funds one egg retrieval and one ET anyway, and we don't want to risk jeopardising the funding in case we need it if this cycle isn't successful 👍

@Lemongrass1 @MGee123
Thank you both. X

Personally I wouldn't lie about it - not only are their ethical and moral implications of lying and potentially taking funding away from others but doctors often treat the first cycle like a tester and learn a lot from it about what to tweak to have better success next time. By lying you are starting from scratch and not able to pass on any of that knowledge and potentially just sabotaging the success of the next cycle?

@ivfgot2 thank you for your response.
I didn't say I would lie about it though. I was just asking whether whilst waiting for my NHS attempt I could have a private attempt.

@JadeS174

Yes I know the lying part was in reference to the poster who said she was going to be lying x

@ivfgot2 Please don't judge other people's situations so quickly.

Unfortunately in my area we will be waiting another 18-24 months to have a go at an NHS IVF cycle. By then I could be nearly 35, which is the cut off for them funding any cycle at all. I either sit and wait, hoping it all clunks through quickly enough to sneak in before my age deadline (knowing there is very little chance I will conceive naturally), or get on with a private cycle in the meantime. I don't want to roll the dice and risk them not funding, in case our private cycle isn't successful (we can't afford endless attempts). Neither do I want to wait 2 years, with the likelihood of success at IVF reducing, to find we cross the age threshold before we can start an NHS cycle. The funding is insufficient nationally but that doesn't mean I am 'taking it away from someone else'. Each funding application is judged on whether applicants fit criteria, not how many funds they have already allocated. A bit more empathy and less judgement may be sensible in future. What would you do in my situation?

NHS should not penalise couples for going private full stop, especially women over 35 who have waited for so long only to be thrown a spanner at them due to COVID and back on the waiting list on their slot. The funding is theirs and they should be given the treatment regardless whether they went private or not. If anything going private and the cycle sadly failing is even more of a reason For the nhs to help couples fastrack their journey and be funded by the NHS help them have the child they crave for since no doubt they are in a financial burden due to the NHS waiting lists.

Also the first cycle is a serious cycle, learning from mistakes from a tester is not practise in medicine.

@MGee123

In your situation.......I paid privately. For 5 rounds. so please don't make assumptions about an apparent "lack of empathy" either

You say each application is judged on whether each applicant fits its criteria.....except your lying about yours? So you are not being judged fairly against other couples who haven't submitted a fraudulent application

We all know the IVF post code lottery isn't fair but it is what it is

And IVF IS affordable......3 of my rounds as part of a package cost £13.5k - 5 year loan £275 a month. Full time childcare costs START at £800 a month or it's going to cost more than that to give up a wage for one parent to be a stay at home parent - therefore the cost of funding IVF is more affordable than the cost of raising a child if it works 🤷‍♀️

@ChicaXS

Unlike most other medical treatment no one can really predict how a woman's body is going to react to IVF drugs - the dose/type of protocol/drug type is all theoretical - why do you think IVF success rates are so low and the recommendation is 3 cycles - because after each cycle doctors learn more about how the body is going to react and what best drugs/protocol is going to work to get the best quality blastocysts

Most women undertaking IVF are not one cycle wonders unless they are in their 20s or early 30s

@ivfgot2 same argument can be said that multiple cycles are repeated with the same dose and medication - no change from the original 1st cycle. Regardless your missing the point but saw you responded that thankfully IVF is ‘affordable’ and can be supported by every couple comparable to childcare. Wow. What great visionary advice to women that are struggling with loans just to pay for medication let alone IVF cycles, really!

Good for you. I'm glad you were in such a fortunate position. You are judging me against your situation. So yes, your response lacks empathy. Empathy by definition is to understand another's feeling from their perspective or frame of reference.

Please don't patronise me with quotes of the cost of childcare. As I'm sure you know, childcare options are not just paying full whack for full time care or someone giving up their job. There are other in between options or alternatives which may not be financially equal to the costs of IVF as you describe. Equally, taking out loans may not be viable or sensible for some people, for a whole host of reasons.

I don't know whether funding a private cycle would impact on our application. It might not, but I'd rather not take the chance. If I had confidence it wouldn't, I would happily disclose it. My application has no bearing on others. It has no impact on them, nor the funding available for them, so I really don't see what your point is. Why does it matter to someone else if I don't admit to attempting a private cycle? If I did pursue an NHS cycle clearly my private cycle was not successful, so I would still be childless and be grateful for the (very limited, far below NICE guidance) treatment my CCG will fund.

@MGee123

Don't patronise me either with dictionary definitions of empathy

Carry on with your fraudulent application

And yes many CCGs have a limit on the number of couples they can treat in a year due to the pot of money they have available so you will be pushing other couples further down the waiting list who aren't defrauding a publicly funded institution

No, as I've said before, that isn't how the funding works. I think we will just have to agree to disagree. Apologies to the OP for hijacking your thread with this disagreement.

@ivfgot2 I think your taking it too far by calling @MGee123 a fraudster and other women in hostile financial situations relying on the NHS for children. Their entitled to funding by the NHS if they need it to give them the child they truly want. You are judging people’s financial situations as your own but I ask you to see the situation different with an empathetic view that not everyone can afford IVF multiple times and being penalised by the NHS is fundamentally a wrong decision considering every cycle is different and can be luck of the draw!