Woman refused fertility treatment

Mar 28 2008 by Angela Wormald, The Journal

A WOMAN who went through the menopause in her teens has been refused fertility treatment on the NHS.

Catherine Storey was left infertile at 18 when she had a premature menopause.

Catherine is now 20, but has been refused IVF on the NHS because her partner already has children – even though they live 300 miles away.

She said: "I feel old before my time. I was just 18 when it happened, but I felt like an 80-year-old. My mum hasn’t gone through the menopause yet and she’s 45.

"It was like my teenage years had been taken away from me."

Desperate to have children with her fiancee, she hoped IVF could give them the family they longed for.

But Catherine, from Cramlington, Northumberland, was refused free treatment on the NHS because partner Martin Sear already has children, who live with his ex 300 miles away.

Determined not to give up and unwilling to wait for years in the UK for treatment, the pair took out a bank loan and travelled to a clinic in Barcelona.

Within weeks Catherine was undergoing treatment, but after forking out £13,000 on two rounds of IVF, she is still not pregnant and has run out of cash to keep trying.

Catherine, an administrative assistant with a fire alarms company, said: "I find it absolutely shocking. I work hard and pay my taxes and then at the time I needed the NHS, they have turned their back on me.

"If I had fallen in love with a different man or lived in a different part of the country, I could have been able to have IVF for free.

"When I first found out I couldn’t have children, I was devastated.

"Infertility affects your whole life and even now, I think about it all the time.

"When I went through the menopause my hormones were all over the place and I had to take anti- depressants.

"Now I’m £13,000 in debt and am still no further forward.

"I am on the waiting list at the Centre for Life in Newcastle, but it’s four years long. And even when I get to the top, I will have to pay for the treatment.

"It is not right that I am refused treatment because Martin already has children. They live in Buckinghamshire and we only get to see them every three weeks when we travel 300 miles to see them.

"It makes me so mad when I see other people getting so much for free.

People who are overweight can get free stomach stapling operations to stop them eating, but no one will help me to try and have a baby."

A Newcastle Primary Care Trust (PCT) spokeswoman said she understood Catherine’s distress.

But she added: "The local NHS policy for receiving fertility treatment says that to have access to IVF treatment, couples must have no other living children in this or any previous relationship for either partner, have had a minimum of three years unexplained infertility and no history of failed sterilisation reversal in either male or female partner."

She said discussions were taking place with other PCTs to standardise eligibility criteria across the North East.

Doctors are able to make a direct application on behalf of a patient to the PCT which can then be considered.

The spokeswoman said: "There is currently a shortage of egg donors because of the invasive nature of making a donation.

"Unless a relative or friend is prepared to donate an egg, the waiting list could be around four years.

"We would always recommend that patients have a detailed discussion with their doctor around the options available to them."