This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses proposed changes to the law governing fertility treatment and embryo research.

The discussion is chaired by Dr Helen O'Neill, with contributions from:

⚫ Professor Dame Clare Gerada (President of the Royal College of General Practitioners)

⚫ Steve McCabe MP (Member of Parliament for Birmingham Selly Oak)

⚫ Penny Mitchell (Director for Population Health Commissioning at NHS North Central London's Integrated Care Board)

⚫ Professor Melanie Davies (Professor of Reproductive Medicine at University College London)

⚫ Dr Chris Skedgel (Director of the Office of Health Economics)

⚫ Dr Catherine Hill (Interim Chief Executive of Fertility Network UK)

⚫ Sarah Norcross (Director of PET)

For 20 years, the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended that the NHS should provide up to three full cycles of IVF to a woman (under 40 years of age) undergoing fertility treatment.

This recommendation has never been met consistently by NHS commissioning bodies in England. Consequently, fertility patients in England have spent the past two decades at the mercy of a 'postcode lottery'.

This situation did not improve when the NICE Fertility Guideline received its last major update in 2013. It remains to be seen whether the situation will change when a newly updated Guideline, currently under development, is published by NICE in 2024.

Meanwhile, in July 2022 the UK Government made a commitment – in its Women's Health Strategy for England – 'to greater transparency of the provision of IVF services across the country', and 'to publish data nationally on provision and availability of IVF'. As yet, these things have not happened.

Then in May 2023, PET published its report The Power of Three IVF Cycles, which distils interviews with 194 GPs and six NHS Commissioners across 40 out of 42 English commissioning areas.

This research shows that GPs have a poor understanding of the NICE Fertility Guideline, with only half of GPs able to identify the recommendation (now 20 years old) that three full cycles of NHS-funded IVF should be provided.

Furthermore, around half of GPs believe that their area meets or exceeds the NICE Guideline (even though it has been found that only around one-tenth of areas in England meet this standard), and male GPs are less likely than female GPs to refer eligible patients for IVF.

The PET research also found widespread confusion, among GPs, about the definition of a single 'full' IVF cycle. According to NICE, a full cycle incorporates all transfers to the patient's womb of viable embryos that have been created earlier in that cycle.

PET is grateful to Ferring Pharmaceuticals for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

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