This manifesto emphasises the need for accessibility, equality and an end to discrimination in IVF care
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY JONATHAN PHANG
DIVA and London Women’s Clinic (LWC) have just launched their new IVF Equality Manifesto underlining the need for accessibility, equality and an end to discrimination in IVF care.
Using the latest HFEA figures, the manifesto highlights the increasing number of LGBTQIA people using IVF to grow their families, with female same-sex couples having the highest birth rate per embryo transferred.
However, IVF isn’t always an option open to LGBTQIA people. Just 16% of female same-sex couples had their first cycle of IVF funded by the NHS compared to 52% of opposite sex couples. As the manifesto reads: “Having a chance to start a family should never be a postcode lottery.” LGBTQIA people can be required to self-fund over £25,000 of fertility care just to be deemed eligible for a single round of IVF funded by the NHS.
So what needs to change?
In DIVA and LWC’s IVF Equality Manifesto, here are key threads of change that need to occur:
- Equal access to NHS-funded care: LGBTQIA people should not face additional financial barriers to accessing IVF, or fertility care as a whole. The government must mandate that access to IVF is provided based on equality across the UK, wherever an LGBTQIA prospective parent lives.
- Initial and ongoing education: healthcare professionals should be able to access LGBTQIA-inclusive education on fertility care as part of their initial and ongoing training.
- Choice of care pathway: there needs to be revisions to the NICE guidelines on Fertility Problems Assessment and Treatment to mandate equal access to IVF. Prospective parents should also be able to exercise the choice to start their journey with IVF or with NHS funded IUI.
- Patient engagement: care providers should ensure that the care they provide feels safe and welcoming for everyone by engaging in conversations with the LGBTQIA community about patient-facing materials.
- Rights: we need to develop reliable sources of information on LGBTQIA people and IVF, linking to up-to-date information about local access to IVF provided by PET’s policy tracker.
- Outcomes: HFEA should continue to build on its work tracking outcomes for LGBTQIA people, making this data more visible on landing pages and resources. Clinics in the NHS and self-funded sectors should also consider sharing their outcome data.
- Kitemarking: care providers in the NHS and self-funded sectors should work together with LGBTQIA community organisations to set a shared standard of inclusive fertility care.
- Tailored interventions: NHS and self-funded sector care pathways should support greater choice in IVF treatment, for example offering reciprocal IVF (where a one prospective parent donates an egg for their partner to carry).
- Transparent costs: the self funded sector should provide transparent, consistent costs for IVF, including care tailored to LGBTQIA+ prospective parents.
You can find out more about DIVA and LWC’s IVF Equality Manifesto here.
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