A same-sex couple is calling for fairer access to fertility treatments, after spending £16,000.
Emma and Helen, from Yate, near Bristol, have paid privately for two unsuccessful rounds of artificial insemination and will now pay for IVF.
In Somerset, 30 miles away, couples have access to nine NHS-funded cycles.
NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board said its treatment is designed to support as many people as possible.
“It’s just really upsetting,” Emma said.
“With IUI (intrauterine insemination), by about six rounds it’s mostly successful, so if another local authority down the road are saying nine are funded then actually the majority of same sex couples without fertility issues would get pregnant, so actually their dreams of having a family would come true and they wouldn’t be in that debt.”
Same sex couples will often have to demonstrate their infertility before the NHS will fund IVF – and to do so must pay privately for between three and 12 rounds of artificial insemination.
Couples in Bristol, North Somerset or South Gloucestershire, where Emma and Helen live, have to pay for six cycles of artificial insemination treatments, before qualifying for one round of IVF on the NHS, if they are unable to prove both partners have fertility issues.
But Somerset NHS Trust is one of very few local authorities that can offer up to nine cycles of artificial insemination and one round of IVF.
Campaigners have called the need to privately fund rounds of artificial insemination a “gay tax” and urged the government to “remove financial barriers”.
SOURCE: BBC