There was a big splash in the papers at the beginning of the month, celebrating the good news story that fertility treatment could begin again from this week. What all coverage failed to acknowledge, though, is that for anyone receiving treatment through the NHS or paying privately in NHS hospitals, nothing has changed. The fertility clinic staff at my hospital were redeployed when the outbreak started. These measures, quite rightly, can’t yet be dismantled.
After a successful IVF round in September that ended in miscarriage, my husband and I were partway through a round in March when it became clear we’d have to stop. Amid the adjustment to life under lockdown, we were resigned to another torturous six months in fertility limbo, celebrating our family and friends’ pregnancy announcements while burying our own infertility pain with dwindling levels of success.
The news on 1 May gave an unexpected, straightforward injection of hope: the ban is lifted, fertility treatment can start again. But in reality, fertility services remain firmly in the grey area created by coronavirus. We’ve heard nothing from our hospital, except a statement on their website saying it’s extremely unlikely treatment will be resuming this week. Beyond that, there’s no indication of how long it will be. It leaves us to guess: whether hospital clinics feel confident to start treatment again while the alert level remains high; whether fertility treatment will be a priority, compared with other services that are also on hold; and whether they’ll wait to see what impact newly relaxed lockdown rules have on infection rates.
The situation brings a new dynamic to the already swirling questions that consume most of us dealing with fertility issues: Will this ever work? Will the huge quantities of drugs and hormones I’m subjecting myself to be worth it? Can I bear much more of this? The questions remain rhetorical for the foreseeable future. We’ll carry on and wait.
Lucy Fisher
London
