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Britain lagging behind on IVF access, figures show
Britain is languishing near the bottom of the league table of European countries offering childless couples access to fertility treatment, it was revealed yesterday.
Of 13 nations, the UK is 11th in the list, providing just 729 In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment cycles per million of population. Britain's IVF rate is three times lower than Denmark and Belgium's, according to the latest available figures.
Denmark was top of the table with 2,337 treatment cycles per million, followed by Belgium (2,187), Iceland (1,793), Finland (1,721) and Sweden (1,631).
Only Germany (664) and Montenegro (408) had lower rates than the UK. The figures emerged from the latest survey of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) conducted by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (Eshre). Eshre's European IVF Monitoring Consortium collected the data in 2006.
Clare Lewis-Jones, chief executive of charity Infertility Network UK, said: "We are angry that although the UK pioneered infertility treatment, we are still among the lowest providers in Europe. These figures show
that availability in the UK is less than one- third of that in Denmark."
The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence, which vets NHS treatments for cost efficiency, says childless couples should be entitled to three free IVF cycles. However, most patients only qualify for one.
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