A Lesbian couple have won the right to IVF on the NHS after a legal tussle, ahead of laws that will put same-sex patients on an equal footing with heterosexuals.
The couple, who remain anonymous, had to go through a legal fight to push the NHS to fund IVF because, at the moment, individual trusts decide whether they wish to pay for treatment for lesbians.
The couple were initially refused IVF by their primary care trust because they were of the same sex. One of the women had polycystic ovarian syndrome, which disrupts ovulation, and is one of the most common causes of infertility.
From October, clinics will no longer be able to block lesbians by referring to a child’s “need for a father”. Instead, same-sex couples will need to demonstrate only that they can offer “supportive parenting”.
If NHS trusts continue to deny lesbians fertility treatment after this date they face possible legal action.
Ruth Hunt, head of policy at Stonewall, the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity, said: “The changes in the law should mean that no infertile lesbian is refused NHS fertility treatment on the grounds of her sexual orientation.
“We have just published a guide on how to get pregnant for lesbians in response to lots of queries. This is a hot topic for us at the moment.”
While same-sex couples have won new rights, many heterosexual couples continue to be denied IVF on the NHS. Only 27% of trusts offer heterosexual couples three cycles of treatment as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the NHS guidance body.
If lesbians are fertile they can usually conceive by intrauterine insemination (IUI), the medical name for donor insemination. This is less complicated than IVF, which involves fertilising eggs in a test tube. IUI is also cheaper,at about £700 per attempt compared with £3,000 per cycle of IVF.
The lesbian couple enlisted David Herbert, a partner at the law firm Lester Aldridge, when they were denied IVF on the grounds that they were of the same sex. The trust reversed its decision in June.
Herbert said: “Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is contrary to the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act. There is an element of conflict in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 which requires clinics to consider a child’s ‘need for a father’.
“This was used historically to justify denying treatment to same-sex couples. The ‘need for a father’ element is just about to be removed on the grounds that it is discriminatory. The assessment will be for ‘supportive parenting’, which will come into force in October.”
The government’s equality watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, took an interest and offered its support to the couple.
This is the second known case in which lesbians have been given fertility treatment after a legal fight. In February a Scottish couple forced Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS health board to offer them treatment.
