Kate Osborne MP for Jarrow hosted a drop-in event in Parliament to discuss IVF provision on the NHS.
The event enabled members of parliament to hear from people with lived-experience of challenges to accessing fertility treatment simply because they are in a same-sex relationship.
But before that, Isaac Barnswell from Stonewall gave an overview of the accessibility to fertility services (including IVF) based on research carried out earlier this year. The picture was dire. Only four integrated care boards do not require same-sex female couples to pay for multiple rounds of artificial insemination before allowing them to access NHS treatment.
We heard from Laura-Rose Thoroughgood (founder of LGBT Mummies and of Proud Foundations) about how lesbian women are repeatedly failed by their GPs and the NHS in general and not just in relation to IVF.
Both Isaac and Laura-Rose spoke at the PET event 'The Women's Health Strategy, One Year On' and you can listen to a podcast of this event.
The social media influencers Wegan - Whitney and Megan Bacon-Evans - spoke about their struggle to start a family. Unable to access NHS-funded treatment in Frimley they launched a judicial review. PET covered this in BioNews.
The final speaker was Michael Johnson-Ellis co-founder of My Surrogacy Journey. He told MPs about how impossible it was for gay men to access NHS-funded fertility services in England, whereas in Scotland men can access treatment. He said that many men were 'financially infertile'.
Among the MPs who dropped in was Alex Davies-Jones, who is included in the picture above.
