Lesbian couples ‘priced out of starting families by IVF rules’, says fertility expert

Queer women with the dream of starting a family face an ‘unfair postcode lottery’ in the UK, a fertility expert has said.

There are two main fertility options for queer women. Intrauterine insemination (IUI), a non-surgical procedure in which sperm is injected into a uterus through a flexible tube, and in vitro fertilization (IVF).

During IVF, an egg is removed from a woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a lab. This egg, called an embryo, is returned to the womb.

IVF is available on the NHS for queer women if they meet eligibility criteria such as age, previous children and health status.

But above all, professor Geeta Nargund, a senior NHS consultant, tells Metro, IVF on the NHS is all about location, location, location.

‘Queer women hoping to start a family currently face an unfair IVF postcode lottery,’ Nargund, medical director of the Metro Pride Awards-nominated CREATE Fertility and abc ivf, said.

‘This means that their access to NHS-funded fertility treatment is determined by their postcode and is often subject to strict non-clinical criteria.

‘For example, 52% of Integrated Care Boards – the bodies that decide NHS provision – state that same-sex couples have to self-fund between six to 12 cycles of artificial insemination before being eligible.

‘For context, this means couples may have to spend more than £10,000 on private treatment before accessing NHS-funded IVF treatment. For their straight counterparts, they simply need to prove they’ve been trying to get pregnant via unprotected sex for two years – with no cost burden.

‘This makes starting a family expensive from the very start for a lesbian couple.’

More than 52,500 patients underwent IVF treatment in the UK in 2022, compared to 50,000 in 2019, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), a fertility watchdog. Of them, nine in 10 were in heterosexual relationships.

In 2023, the NHS funded 39% of IVF cycles for heterosexual couples. Just 14% of patients in female same-sex relationships could say the same, the HFEA found. 

Having a baby in Britain as a same-sex couple can get costly – and fast. Campaigners have warned that as the NHS struggles amid budget cuts and staff shortages, people are being pushed to go private.

An advertised IVF package can cost between £3,735 to £13,408 on private, according to Fertility Mapper. This tends to not include medication, embryo storage and other charges.

A single cycle of IUI can tip just over the £1,000 mark. Surrogacy, meanwhile, can cost up to about £80,000 to arrange.

Women in the UK are slightly more likely than men to be in poverty, with there being little difference financially between straight and queer women.

The additional requirement of demonstrating the need for IVF by spending thousands on private artificial insemination amounts to what fertility and LGBTQ+ activists have dubbed the ‘gay tax’.

‘This prices many couples out of starting their family and shows how much progress needs to be made to support hopeful LGBTQ+ parents,’ Nargund says.

Waiting lists for a round of IVF covered by the NHS can range from a few months to up to three years. However, most NHS trusts stress treatment begins within a few months after completing any forms.

Nargund says the government could end the ‘IVF postcode lottery’ by introducing a ‘national IVF tariff’ – a style of tax applied to imports and exports – to help fund cycles.

‘It is urgent that everyone who needs fertility treatment to start a family is given the opportunity to have treatment on the NHS,’ she says.

‘Giving equal and fair access to IVF treatment is essential to uphold the founding principles of our NHS and to celebrate creating modern and diverse families in our progressive nation.’

Nargund adds that CREATE Fertility and its sister clinic, abc IVF, are trying to plug the gap for women eligible for NHS-funded treatments.

‘We are proud to say that we brought affordable IVF to the UK and that over 900 babies have been born to LGBTQ+ parents across the UK through treatment with CREATE Fertility or abc IVF,’ she says.

An NHS England spokesperson told Metro: ‘While Integrated Care Boards as the local health commissioners have to balance the various competing demands on the NHS locally, it is absolutely right that they provide equal access to fertility services to same-sex couples, according to the needs of people within their areas.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.