So What is the Postcode Lottery?

The Fertility Podcast

So what is the Postcode lottery?

Well we’ve been talking about it here on the podcast for years ( since we started to be honest ) and if you’d like to hear previous episodes on it here is Susan Seenan the former CEO of Fertility Network in 2015

Then we spoke about it in 2017 when Fertility Network launched its Right to Try campaign.

So you can see, this issue has been impacting our access to treatment for a long time.

What is going on is that your postcode impacts how many rounds of NHS funded treatment you are eligible, despite the NICE guidelines being that you SHOULD have 3 rounds of IVF treatment Natalie was fortunate to be living in an area where she did have this and had her son Phoenix, with the help of NHS funding.

Sadly this isn’t the case for a lot of you.

Our first guest is Amber Izzo, a fertility patient advocate, blogger, and campaigner, founder of Fight for IVF and Innovation Fertility. We spoke to Amber on 6th July, ahead of her hearing from the CCG in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who had been reviewing their IVF policy about whether they were going to reinstate funding

Amber started it due to not having any access to NHS-funded treatment.. when she started there were 6 that didn’t offer any, now there are 3.

• Mid Essex
• Bassildon and Brentwood
• Cambridge and Peterborough

Have a listen here to a previous episode we shared in 2020, where another listener Laura had success lobbying her CCG

The issue is that over 80% of CCGs don’t adhere to the NICE Guidelines which is why the Fight for Ivf campaign picked up a lot of momentum. Amber’s local MP’s in Cambridge was on board as he had personal experience )had a cross-party letter to the CCG, which secured a meeting in 2021 to secure the review. She had gained great exposure with media coverage on Sky and BBC and the petition is currently on 30k signatures. You can sign it here

People are being refused to fund because the CCG has put in their own criteria, such as if your partner has a child already. You can appeal this. Amber has asked her GP to put on her notes if he refuses any of the tests she asks for, so there is proof of what she has requested and she can find out more about why they said no.

Watch Amber and her husband Marco hearing about the CCG’s decision here.

So what other options are there for treatment? We spoke with Marta Jansa Perez, Director of Embryology at BPAS Fertility, who are launching their BPAS FERTILITY later in 2021

Please note we do talk about Implantation failure in this episode.

Marta joined BPAS as she always felt strongly there was a need to help people and she joined BPAS to help create their not for profit service as they felt there was a gap in the market for people who can’t access NHS...

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