Obese women in the UK should be refused IVF treatment

The British Fertility Society (BFS) is recommending that women who are severely overweight women should not be given access to free fertility treatment.

In a new report the experts also say that obese women should be referred to a dietician and given exercise advice before they are offered IVF treatment and their treatment deferred until they "demonstrate response to these interventions".

Those who are severely obese (BMI over 36) would have to show weight loss before they were approved.

The report also recommends that single women and same sex couples should be offered the same access to IVF treatment as heterosexual couples and no women over the age of 40 should be allowed to start NHS-funded fertility treatment.

The recommendations by the BFS which suggest women with a body mass index of 36 or more should be denied IVF treatment on the NHS, are even more direct than current NHS guidelines which although they say overweight women should be advised of the health risks, but do not deny the treatment.

According to the BFS, as obese women are less likely to get pregnant and more likely to encounter health problems, it is common sense to tackle the problem before trying to access fertility treatment.

They advise that women with a body mass index of 29 or more undergo a programme of diet and exercise before being allowed IVF treatment.

The BFS also recommends that smoking should not be a reason for exclusion but patients who smoke should be given advice about its implications, and waiting times for treatment should be the same as for any other medical condition.

The BFS says it is aiming to tackle the 'wide disparity' in the social criteria used by individual NHS trusts in deciding whether treatment should be allowed.

Dr. Mark Hamilton, chairman of the BFS says single women, lesbian couples and people who already have children from a previous relationship should not be excluded from NHS treatment.

He say the current inequality of access to treatment in the NHS is unacceptable and causes considerable distress to a great number of people with fertility problems.

For its report the society surveying 64 licensed fertility clinics in England and Wales in 2005.

Current guidelines to clinics express "the need for a father" in deciding who is eligible for free treatment but the Government apparently plans to drop this requirement.

Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, a member of the science and technology select committee, has welcomed the report which he says are a progressive set of recommendations and there is no good reason to discriminate unfairly against one group of patients or another.

Harris says clinics should not be able to "hide behind" rules that the welfare of a child was best served by having a father in their lives.

The results of the survey will be published in the Human Fertility journal later this month.