Tag Archives: Fertility Treatment

Couple demand equal fertility treatment from NHS

They just want to become mothers, but say they’re being discriminated against because of their sexuality.

YouTubers Megan Bacon Evans and her wife Whitney have launched a campaign demanding equal fertility treatment – after they were told they’d have to pay up to £30,000 to a private clinic before they could get any help from the NHS.

In an interview Megan said “We were really shocked to find out to get any help from the NHS we would have to go through six rounds. Even for one round we’re already at £6,000. We’ve had a lot of our followers message us and say they can’t afford to get pregnant,” she added.

Megan and Whitney are using their YouTube channel to campaign for equal access for fertility services for LGBT+ couples.

The couple have heard desperate stories from their followers trying to get pregnant.

“They were going to Facebook and finding sperm donors and doing it for free at home. I was shocked! Who knows what their medical backgrounds are?,” they added.

Stonewall’s Eloise Stonborough added “It very much depends on where you are – whether or not you have access to appropriate treatment. Whether you’re required to pay privately for donor sperm once you have access to NHS-funded IVF,” said .

“The NHS and Department of Health need to review their guidance to make sure it’s much clearer for CCGs [Clinical Commissioning Groups] about what they provide and where,” she added.

Whitney and Megan have started a petition and as well as more financial help they are asking for changes in care for LGBT+ couples whop are trying for a baby.

“We are asking for formal training with NHS staff on all LGBT+ issues. We’ve heard stories of some doctors saying ‘who’s the real mum or where’s the dad?’,” said Whitney.

The government said it was committed to reviewing IVF equality to ensure all couples get equal access to fertility treatment regardless of sexuality.

Whitney and Megan hope their petition gets enough signatures to get their petition debated in parliament.

Lesbian Couple Challenges Insurance Bar To Fertility Treatment

A married lesbian couple, Erin and Marianne Krupa, decided to try for a baby a few years ago but discovered Erin, who was to carry the baby, had fertility problems.

Her doctor told her that she had benign cysts on her uterus and endometriosis which had left her infertile.

Her doctor assured her that her health insurance would pay for her fertility treatment, but the company, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield refused.

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The company told the couple that one of their insurance mandate of 2001 stated that women under the age of 35, no matter what their sexual orientation, had to demonstrate infertility by having two years of unprotected sexual intercourse.

The Krupa’s and another unnamed couple are now suing the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance because they claim the mandate discriminates against lesbian women forcing infertile gay women to pay for their own procedures in order to get pregnant.

Grace Cretcher, the lawyer acting on behalf of the women, states that the mandate violates the constitutional rights of non-heterosexual women who are obviously unable to prove their infertility simply by having unprotected sexual intercourse.

15 states now legally require insurance companies to cover fertility treatment and California and Maryland have updated their mandates to require fertility coverage regardless of sexual orientation.

Dr William Zieglar, a medical director of the reproduction science centre in New Jersey, said that the mandate that require proof of infertility has not been thought out well enough as gay women are unable to have a baby in the same way a heterosexual couple can because they do not have the same biological equipment.

Discrimination is still happening in many areas and the only way these discriminations can be overcome is to make people aware of them. This mandate is over 15 years old and is well overdue an update that should include gay women having the right to medical treatment if they are infertile.

Giving this right to a heterosexual woman and not a gay woman is an act of discrimination that shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

Lesbian Couple Discusses The Discrimination They Faced During Fertility Treatment

Lesbian couple from Greysteel in County Londonderry, have spoken of how they were left feeling “embarrassed”, after visiting an NHS clinic, and being told they were ineligible for treatment.

The couple – Sarah Murphy and Jenny Doherty – says they then decided to visit a private facility, in order for the procedure to be legal.

In the UK, for a couple to have both names on birth certificate, they must use a fertility clinic, and not do the procedure on their own.

Speaking the BBC, Sarah Murphy explained;

That was one of the main reasons why we chose to go through a clinic and not to do it ourselves. As we aren’t in a same sex marriage or in a civil partnership, Jenny’s name will now be on the baby’s birth certificate as the legal parent.”

Murphy said they were concerned that if they had taken matters into their own hands, a lengthy court battle could have ensued.

The couple went to the private clinic after attending the Western Health Trust and regional fertility centre.

The health service weren’t very helpful to be honest.”

The Trust told the BBC that it does not comment on individual cases, but that anyone concerned about their treatment should get in contact.

After the ordeal, Murphy said those in same-sex relationships should find it easier to access these services, and called for “better knowledge”among doctors.

Even if you could be told – ‘We can offer you this or we can’t offer you that’ – that would be a massive help, instead of walking out with more questions than you walk in. I think from the moment we walked in the door, we were almost dismissed.

We felt embarrassed for wanting something that every other human in the world wants.”

The couple say they don’t regret paying out around £6,000 for the private clinic, and that their parents are excited to become grandparents.

We were treated as a couple who wanted to have a baby, just the same as every other couple who were there. It has been expensive, and without loans and credit cards and help from my parents we wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

It has been priceless and we would do it again in a heartbeat, but at the same time we wish we didn’t have to spend that much.”

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