Thank you for contacting me about fertility inequality in Wales. I believe in a fair and equal Wales, where anyone who wants to have a family can access the clinical support they need to achieve that goal.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) fertility guidelines make
recommendations about who should have access to IVF treatment on the NHS. The existing NICE fertility guidelines include provisions for same sex couples who have demonstrated their clinical infertility through six failed cycles of artificial insemination. If this is the case, these couples are offered a further 6 cycles of unstimulated intrauterine insemination before proceeding to IVF.
However, as you may know, healthcare is devolved to the Welsh Government. This means
that it is up to Ministers in Wales to oversee the provision of IVF in the NHS. In Wales, the
policy on who can have NHS-funded IVF in Wales is governed by the advice of the Welsh
Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC). Recently the WHSCC have proposed to go against NICE guidelines, doubling the number of cycles of intrauterine insemination (IUI) that same-sex female couples now required to undergo before qualifying for NHS fertility care, such as In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
The Welsh Government are ultimately going backwards with this decision, with NICE actually reviewing their own guidelines to consider whether they are still appropriate, with the potential of reducing requirements for same sex couples in the future. Their review is expected to be published in 2024.
I wholeheartedly agree that no couple should face disproportionate or unequal costs in their efforts to overcome fertility issues. My Welsh Conservative colleagues and I will continue to monitor the situation closely and will continue to scrutinise the Welsh Government.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely,