The publication of expert guidance on who should and who shouldn't be eligible for infertility treatment on the NHS has unsurprisingly raised hackles.
The guidance, issued yesterday by the British Fertility Society (BFS), includes 11 recommendations on the reform of social criteria used by fertility clinics to decide who to treat.
They include that no woman should be offered IVF (in vitro fertilisation) on the NHS over the age of 40 and that single women and lesbian couples should be treated in the same way as heterosexual couples.
The society also advises restricting access to IVF, which has an average success rate of only 15%, on the grounds of a woman's weight. However, this does not equate to a ban on fat women having fertility treatment as some reports - such as those in the Daily Mail and on the Guardian's Comment is Free blog - have made out.
The guidance says both overweight and underweight women should take steps to achieve a healthy body mass index (BMI) - calculated by comparing a person's weight and height - before a decision is made about funding treatment.
And obesity would not be an absolute bar to IVF. The BFS says a woman with a BMI under 36 should be eligible for treatment; a BMI of 30-39.9 is classified as obese.
