Fertility treatment offers a real glimmer of hope for the one-in-seven couples who struggle to conceive. However couples who undertake such treatment need to prepare for an emotional - and often expensive - journey. While treatment is theoretically available free of charge from the NHS the reality is often very different. Eligibility for free IVF varies so much across England and Wales that couples are effectively facing a postcode lottery. According to a survey by Conservative MP Grant Shapps many of the primary care trusts (PCTs) that run local health services are not following guidelines on the provision of IVF set by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) the body which decides the treatments available on the NHS. NICE guidelines say that women aged between 23 and 39 should be offered up to three cycles of treatment. However eligibility varies depending on the rules of the PCT operating in each region. Shapps' report. The Messy Business of Conception says PCTs vary over factors such as the eligible age of patients and number of IVF cycles offered. Grant Shapps says: "Inconsistencies in the implementation of the guideline have created 'baby boundaries' where couples are effectively being told that they cannot have a baby while their friends on the other side of the street who have a similar set of circumstances are able to obtain three cycles of IVF provided for them by the NHS."Your GP should be able to give you details of what you're entitled to on the NHS but be warned - if you are accepted for treatment the waiting list can be very long. Also unless you are exempt from paying prescription charges you will still have to pay for fertility drugs which cost between £800 and £1,600 per course of treatment. NHS treatment can either be in an NHS facility or a private clinic that has a deal with the PCT.
If your local PCT won't pay for IVF then it's time to think about going private. The NHS will normally bear the costs of tests to ascertain the problem - albeit with a waiting list - but when it comes to treatment you will have to pay for it yourself. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is the watchdog responsible for licensing clinics in the UK. Its website - - has an interactive tool to help you search for 85 clinics around the country. To be treated privately you will still need to meet the clinic's eligibility criteria which will consider factors such as your age and circumstances. But the good news is that many will treat older women than the NHS can. Clinics vary in what they offer who they will treat and at what price so shop around for the one that meets your needs and budget. The HFEA puts the cost of a cycle of IVF at between £4,000 and £8,000 but it's more if you have ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) at the same time. Whether or not this price includes initial consultations counselling and drugs depends on the clinic. Some will offer a reduced rate if you sign up for more than one. Additional expenses you need to consider include time off work and the cost of travelling to and from hospital appointments. At the moment there is no legal right to time off work for fertility treatment.
If you have been confirmed as having fertility problems you might be tempted to start treatment straightaway but it is a good idea to work out how you will pay for it first. While private medical insurance (PMI) may cover the cost of diagnosing a fertility problem it doesn't cover the cost of treating it. Paul Lynes spokesperson of Standard Life Healthcare says: "We don't cover it on our policies although we do pay for investigations into the cause of infertility (after two years of continuous cover) on many of our policies. This is standard in the PMI industry."Diagnostic tests are usually paid for by the NHS but waiting times vary; patients with a long wait ahead might choose to claim on their PMI policy or pay for the tests themselves.
There are several options for funding treatment. But the reality for many couples is that they will have to borrow. Traditional wisdom says its best to save for large expenses using tax-free and high interest rate savings accounts. But as treatment can become less successful with age planning ahead and saving up is unlikely to be an option for couples who are desperate to start a family will often be your first port of call and the private hospital chain BMI Healthcare does offer a card that allows you to spread the cost of health treatment interest free. The card offers six months' interest-free for healthcare purchases and an APR of 9.9% thereafter. However although competitive it is not the best deal on the market as other cards have longer 0% introductory offers including HSBC and Sky which both currently offer 0% for 12 months. Someone putting £3,000 on the BMI card would need to pay £500 a month in order to pay it off in six months and so not incur any interest. On an HSBC card they would need to pay £250 a month over a year. Finances might not be at the forefront of your mind but with expenses likely to rack up it pays to get the best value deal. If you need to borrow larger sums or need more time to pay the debt off personal loans are an option. Rates tend to be lower the more you borrow so it might be a good idea to borrow the potential total cost of IVF treatment in one go rather than taking out a new loan for each cycle. Good deals at the moment include Moneyback Bank and Yourpersonalloan co uk which both offer of between £5,000 and £20,000 at 6.3%. However despite five interest rate rises in less than a year remortgaging is still one of the cheapest ways of raising extra cash. The first step is to talk to your lender about a further advance whereby you make a separate payment each month on the loan. But whether this is cost-effective or not depends on your lender; while some will let you have a cheap rate of interest or at least match the interest charged on your existing others will insist the loan is on their standard variable rate which is inevitably higher. Shopping around for the best rate on further advances isn't straightforward.
However you fund fertility treatment it is important that both potential parents agree on the amount they will spend and what they will do when they money runs out. As hard as it is you should try not to let your heart rule your head - only borrow what you can afford to repay and remember that if treatment fails you could have nothing to show for your debts. Equally if the treatment is a success you need to budget for a family and be sure you haven't overstretched yourselves before the baby is even born. There is only one certainty when you have children and that is that it's going to be expensive.
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