Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Site stuff

Join our Innovation Panel to try new features early and help make Mumsnet better.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

MNHQ

New NHS guidelines on IVF treatment to extend age limit up to 42 - what do you think?

583 replies

JaneGMumsnet · 20/02/2013 10:26

Good morning,

New IVF guidelines issued by the National Institute of Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) say that women aged up to 42 should be allowed one cycle of IVF treatment so long as it is their first attempt. Previously Nice recommended treatment up to the age of 39.

The guidelines also suggest that all couples who are struggling to conceive should get fertility treatment more quickly ? after two years of trying to conceive naturally, rather than three.

We'd love to hear what you think.

Thanks,
MNHQ

OP posts:
Northey · 22/02/2013 17:31

Silly xenia, having babies isn't the worst thing that can be done for the planet, it's curing sick people. Stop vaccinating babies, and giving inhalers to asthmatics, and giving antibiotics to anyone, and irradiating tumours, and cleaning and binding infected cuts, and we will be back to balance in no time. And so much more money in the budget for the barrens - hurrah!

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 22/02/2013 17:32

Says the woman with five children.....

RedToothBrush · 22/02/2013 17:34

Xenia Fri 22-Feb-13 16:30:31
There is little you can do worse for this planet than having a baby so probably the priority for mother earth is to ensure that the more people who are infertile the better.

Or use birth control.
How many children is it you have again Xenia?

ROFLMAO.

You are at being a deliberate good windup merchant, I'll give you that... pity you are so insensitive.

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 22/02/2013 17:49

I can't understand why someone who is constantly telling us how busy, fulfilled, well paid and stimulated she is would possibly waste her time posting stuff like that. As you say, RedToothbrush, it's WUMming, pure and simple.

expatinscotland · 22/02/2013 18:05

'There is little you can do worse for this planet than having a baby so probably the priority for mother earth is to ensure that the more people who are infertile the better.'

And you have 5.

I hear you, MrsD.

Xenia · 22/02/2013 19:31

I did not say I was bent on saving the planet. Mother earth may well weep, but I don't share some mumsnetters' views on planet saving with their attempts to be carbon neutral and the like which are such a farce when by having each baby they do the planet so very very much harm.

Northey · 22/02/2013 19:35

Huh? Not sure what point you're making on this thread then... If you don't care about saving the planet, then you have no objection to people adding children to it through fertility treatment. Is that it?

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 22/02/2013 19:49

So you're just playing Devil's Advocate then? On a sensitive thread in which people are discussing their terribly sad experiences and shattered dreams.

Nice.

gaelicsheep · 22/02/2013 20:56

My God, will you look at Mumsnet at the moment:

women who have kids young at the expense of their careers - they are irresponsible scroungers, having children before they can be sure they can support them properly without ever needing help from the taxpayer AND they have reduced their future earning power. Shocking.

women who establish their careers before having children - have trouble conceiving? Tough, you shouldn't have left it so long, being selfish putting your career first.

Men say they can never understand women. I wonder why?

And believe me, if we need to limit the world population - and do remember the UK has an ageing population - there are far far better ways of doing it than letting fate have the casting vote.

5madthings · 22/02/2013 21:03

Well if having children fucks the world i have done a great job at fucking it. I havw five and i donated eggs last year, my egg recipient had twins. I am bloody thrilled at that, world fucking or not. i cannot begin to imagine the pain of infertility so i welcome these changes just wish they would stop it being such a post code lottery and bring down waiting times as well.

Xenia · 22/02/2013 21:06

Immigration.
Yes, infertility is a sensitive topic but the issue is all about NHS rationing. I was just bringing up the dreadful pollution and damage each baby we all have has in terms of the impact on the planet. In fact when I was small having more than 1 or 2 children really was very very much the bad thing to do. We don't hear that today. Very different ethos at the moment about babies and over population even though the population is much bigger and the planet suffering even more.

The answer to gaelic sheep is do what I did - marry young, babies at 22 and always work full time then you tend to have a much better life, full time work, just about no maternity leave, good career and a happy family. Planning - start it young. I was reading NCT leaflets of my mother when I was 14 on the best position in which to give birth.

gaelicsheep · 22/02/2013 21:12

Xenia - I'm sure will agree you a bit of a special case. I would ask if you knew at the age of 22 that you could definitely support your children for the whole of their childhood without a shred of help from anyone, but I know your answer would be Yes. But you do see, especially in this economic climate, that 99% of young women will not have that confidence?

I see it all the time on here, especially in the last week or so, young women criticising parents who claim any tax credits at all, saying that they can't themselves have children because they can't afford their own home/aren't earning enough. You encourage them to keep thinking that then they will never have children, or if they do they will be the ones starting TTC in their mid thirties and possibly needing fertility treatment when going on 40.

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 22/02/2013 21:14

Xenia, I'm not sure you are helping here. We all know how hard you work, how well you plan, how much you earn and how well you provide for your five children.

But given that you have had five, the point of your posts are somewhat puzzling.

Northey · 22/02/2013 21:35

xenia, exactly what point are you trying to make?

JethroTull · 22/02/2013 21:43

Norf I think Xenia's point is (as always) that if only we were all like her the world would be a better place Grin

BasicallySFB · 22/02/2013 22:03

jethro - if we were all as fertile as Xenia - 5 kids was it? - then by her revoking the earth would be fucked Grin

Lovely tho that you can produce as many offspring as you want, but that 'mother nature' would prefer those of us with fertility issues to remain childless.

And the prize for poster with least tact and insight goes to...

BasicallySFB · 22/02/2013 22:05

Revoking? Logic. WTF is up with my phone...

sleepyhead · 22/02/2013 22:18

If we were all like Xenia then she'd be on minimum wage (if she could find a job at all), wages tending to be closely linked to supply and demand.

Xenia is very lucky that we're not all as clever, hard working and driven as her Wink

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 22/02/2013 22:25

And don't forget well paid?

sleepyhead · 22/02/2013 22:27

And fecund.

hopefulgum · 22/02/2013 22:40

Infertility is not a lifestyle choice, even if you don't start ttc until you are 40. Why shouldn't the NHS help infertile couples realise their dream of having a child? Why should someone like Xenia have 5, and a childless couple should just suck it up? If one of Xenia's children becomes ill, perhaps through their choices (risky behaviors, traveling in third world countries etc) should we turn them away from healthcare?

What an insensitive, horrible thing to say, when you have 5 kids. Unbelievable.

I too have 5 children, but I feel no guilt for it. I don't want to have an argument about saving the planet. I imagine some of my 5 children may be contributing taxes to and perhaps even working with the aging population. However, having some compassion for others struggling to have a child of their own is not difficult.

I had my last baby at 41. So what if you have a baby after 40(or 42 or 46)? Older parents make great parents, and the argument about their health etc doesn't wash. I have lost three friends to cancer, all before age 50, and my brother in law died at age 42 from motor nuerons. People can have ill-health at any age, surely that doesn't mean they shouldn't have children?

Perhaps finding the money for NHS funded IVF from other areas (military spending?) might be a good idea.

VivaLeBeaver · 22/02/2013 22:46

Not ttc till 40 is generally a lifestyle choice.

hopefulgum · 22/02/2013 22:47

That may be true, however infertility is not a lifestyle choice, whether you are 30 or 40.

DomesticCEO · 22/02/2013 23:09

Skiing is a lifestyle choice. Driving at 100 mph is a lifestyle choice. Driving drunk is a lifestyle choice. Smoking is a lifestyle choice.

You damage your health doing any one of those, or hundreds of other, lifestyle choices, and the NHS will pick up the tab to fix you.

Infertility is NOT a lifestyle choice.

And as for Xenia being clever - judging by the standard of her level of debate on here I would say that was stretching the definition of that word to breaking point.

anonymosity · 23/02/2013 01:05

I did not suggest anyone "refain from having children" but I do resent having to answer a poster who clearly CANNOT READ my own post and choses instead to be a total arse.