Fertility treatment costs are unfair for same-sex couples

Since the moment their three-year-old daughter was born, Tianne Spence-Stokes and her partner Carina have seen their lives upended in the most magical way possible.

- HOLLY EVANS

As a same-sex couple, they had spent years and thousands of pounds undergoing fertility treatments involving a sperm donor to get pregnant. In 2022, they welcomed their baby girl, who they describe as “the greatest joy of our lives”, and now hope to welcome a second child through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Yet they face a staggering bill of more than £20,000 to expand their family. Unlike heterosexual couples, they also had to fully fund fertility treatment during their first pregnancy.

While heterosexual couples are also excluded from NHS-funded fertility treatment for a second child, female same-sex couples must pay for additional intrauterine insemination (IUI) testing before they can seek IUI or IVF.

“It feels like the treatment was never meant for us, that we are added on as an afterthought,” Tianne told The Independent. “A lot of the processes for fertility treatment are very heteronormative, and have a negative impact on marginalised communities.”

For same-sex female couples, there are two main pathways to getting pregnant. IUI is a nonsurgical procedure in which sperm is injected into the uterus, while IVF is the process of removing an egg from a woman’s ovaries and fertilising it with sperm in a lab.

Both procedures are costly, with the majority of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) - which are responsible for commissioning NHS services in local areas - insisting that queer women undergo three to 12 rounds of IUIs before they can be deemed eligible for IVF.