Fall in NHS-funded IVF cycles

The average age that women start fertility treatment has risen as the total number of fertility cycles funded by the NHS has fallen. 

Figures released in July 2024 by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) showed that since 2012, the average age of women starting IVF has risen 0.8 years, to an average age of over 35-years old in 2022. Meanwhile, the average age of women giving birth for the first time rose one year for women in England and Wales over the same period, from 28.2 in 2012 to 29.2 in 2022, the Fertility Treatment 2022: Preliminary Trends and Figures report showed.  

The finding had attracted a lot of media attention, which the HFEA responded to, emphasising it was disappointed some outlets had used the date to apportion 'blame' for the rise in maternal age. In a statement HFEA chair Julia Chain said: 'Fertility treatment is the only area of healthcare where a majority of patients are paying for treatment themselves. Patients are having to make difficult and expensive choices about medical care. A survey of patients by Fertility Network UK found that the cost of living was "pricing fertility patients out of the chance to become parents".'

In the same period the proportion of IVF cycles funded by the NHS dropped to 27 percent in 2022 from 40 percent in 2012. The HFEA reported said that in this time there had been changes to funding across England and Wales, and the commissioning had changed when Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) replaced Clinical Commissioning Groups in July 2022. 

In July 2024 PET (the Progress Educational Trust), the charity that publishes BioNews, launched a Fertility Policy Tracker, which tracks whether or not local ICBs in England offer the three full cycles of IVF recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). It showed just three out of the 42 ICBs offer fertility treatment in line with the NICE Guideline.

The HFEA also pointed towards women being older when they started fertility treatment as a potential reason why they may not be accessing NHS-funded IVF, as they may not be eligible. The PET Fertility Policy Tracker showed 19 ICBs did not offer IVF to women over 40, even though they are eligible for one full cycle, involving transfer of all embryos, until the age of 42. 

HFEA also found that the number of IVF patients in female same-sex relationships increased by 35 percent between 2012-2022, and single patients increased 82 percent in the same period.

The National Fertility Group, a Scottish Government group, reported to the BBC that they had asked Public Health Scotland to investigate the implications of making NHS-funded fertility treatment available to single women in Scotland, where currently only couples are eligible.