Women caught in IVF funds trap (From Wiltshire Times)

Women caught in IVF funds trap

8:47am Friday 23rd March 2007 in Melksham By Victoria Ashford

COUPLES in Wiltshire are being forced to pay thousands of pounds for fertility treatment, despite guideline recommendations to make it available to some on the NHS.

According to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, IVF treatment should be made available to women between the age of 23 and 39 but in Wiltshire many are still being refused help.

Under the Wiltshire Wide Fertility Forum both the Wiltshire PCT and Swindon PCT have an age limit between 30 and 35, but in West Gloucester it is 30 to 39.

Christine Stone, 36, of Bowerhill, Melksham, fears she may never have children after she was told that she had missed the cut off age by a matter of months.

Miss Stone, a civilian worker at Wiltshire Police Headquarters in Devizes, said: "It's not just about having a baby, it is something I have wanted for a long time.

"I am unable to afford the thousands of pounds needed for IVF so it is likely the desire for a family of my own is sadly never going to come to fruition."

Since 1991, Miss Stone has fallen pregnant naturally three times but each time she failed to carry them to full-term.

The trauma of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancies, narrowly missing the cut-off point for free NHS treatment and an inability to afford the costs to go private has left her feeling like it was never meant to be.

Miss Stone said: "It makes me feel so sad because I have an excellent relationship with my step-children, nieces and nephews and I have been told by friends and family that I would make a great mum.

"I feel like I have been dealt a cruel blow by mother-nature and now not getting NHS treatment is just the final nail in the coffin."

Miss Stone has been considering IVF treatment since 2002 when her former GP referred her to the Royal United Hospital, Bath, after she had problems conceiving, following a miscarriage in 1995.

In 2003 she fell pregnant naturally but was rushed into hospital after seven weeks with a suspected ectopic pregnancy.

Miss Stone miscarried and as a result her relationship with her partner broke down and IVF was put off.

In December 2006, Miss Stone discovered she was pregnant with long-term partner Carl Thomas, 35, who has two children from a previous relationship.

Miss Stone said: "I experienced complications from the beginning and after seven and a half weeks I was told by medical staff at the RUH that I had miscarried.

"A couple of weeks later I was told by the same unit that I was still pregnant but that it was ectopic."

Miss Stone was rushed into hospital where she had to undergo surgery, including the removal of her fallopian tube.

She said: "It was terrifying. I was worried that they would take out more then they needed too or that they had made a mistake."

It was at this point that a hospital consultant advised her that she would make a good candidate for assisted medical help to conceive.

In February, she approached the Assisted Conception Clinic at the RUH, but was told that only women between the age of 30 and 35 are eligible to receive treatment funded by the NHS.

With the support of her GP, Miss Stone approached the Wiltshire PCT for her case to be considered before an Exceptions Committee. So far, no one has contacted her about her application.

She said: "I have resigned myself to the fact that I am never going to be a mother."

A PCT spokesman was unavailable to comment.

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