Regional UK newspaper offers couples chance to win IVF

A UK regional newspaper has offered its readers the chance to win free fertility treatment, as part of its campaign to raise awareness of infertility, the types of treatment available, and the lack of universal funding for treatment. The Birmingham Post has initiated the week-long campaign as it says that not all PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) across the UK provide funding for couples needing fertility treatment, despite the fact that Health Secretary John Reid announced plans for all PCTs to fund one free IVF treatment cycle to women aged below 40 by 1 April 2005. This announcement followed a recommendation from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) which said that couples should be offered up to three free cycles.

The Birmingham Post teamed up with the Midlands Fertility Service, a fertility clinic, to launch the 'Funded Fertility Treatment For All' campaign. It will first pick four candidates for the IVF treatment, and they will each go through tests commonly used for fertility assessments to see who is likeliest to conceive. The winners will go on to receive a full course of IVF, or one of three other fertility treatments, including ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), at the expense of the paper. Fiona Alexander, editor of the newspaper, said 'we had no idea how many people are affected, or could be affected, by fertility problems. It shocked us'. She added: 'It also our duty as a newspaper to inform and to educate, even if the subject is unbelievably still considered taboo in some circles'.

Dr Gillian Lockwood, medical director at the Midlands Fertility Service and chair of the British Fertility Society (BFS) Ethics Committee, said they backed the campaign for universally funded fertility treatment. ' About one in six couples have problems conceiving and currently only 30 per cent of the Midlands' couples who require fertility treatment have ready access to GLINK(#:2350, IVF funding, with the number of treatment cycles offered and the length of the waiting lists dependent on where they live', she said, adding 'The Birmingham Post is providing the opportunity for a funded fertility investigation or treatment which gives everyone who needs it an equal chance to benefit from the same high quality choices currently available only to privately-funded patients and to some people on the NHS'.