IVF postcode lottery left woman feeling 'robbed'

Kelly-Marie Madden-Giles started her one and only round of IVF on the NHS in 2024

A woman felt "robbed" and like she was "running out of time" due to NHS IVF access in her county.

Kelly-Marie Madden-Giles, from Buckinghamshire, said she was made to feel that turning 35 meant she was "over the hill".

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines advised up to three IVF cycles for women under 40 and one for those aged 40-42, if they met certain criteria.

However, where Mrs Madden-Giles lives, women were offered one partial cycle up to the age of 35.

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) said "NICE is currently reviewing its guidelines for assisted reproduction" and that the new Thames Valley ICB, to be established in April 2026, "will take this into account when it reviews the relevant clinical commissioning policy statement".

Mrs Madden-Giles gave birth to her daughter Tulley after a private round of IVF.

Access to NHS-funded IVF in England varies by postcode as each ICB sets its own eligibility criteria and number of cycles.

Mrs Madden-Giles, 35, started NHS-funded IVF in March 2024 when she was 33 years old.

She described the IVF age limit as "unfair" and explained how women are having children "much later in life these days."

The couple's one and only round of NHS-funded IVF was unsuccessful, which left them weighing up whether it would be cheaper to pay for the procedure privately or relocate.

She said: "It played on my mind massively - should I move to another area just to get more chances on the NHS?

"You have to weigh up the factors, I do feel like it played a massive part from a mental health perspective - you're constantly thinking, did I make the right move?"

Mrs Madden-Giles, from High Wycombe, gave birth to her daughter Tulley in July 2025, after a round of privately funded IVF which cost the couple "£25,000-£30,000".

Katie Rollings of Fertility Action called it a "social justice and equity issue"

The chief executive of Fertility Action, Katie Rollings, said that the BOB ICB's IVF access "most definitely falls short of already declining national standards".

She added that it was not just a "clinical gap" but a "social justice and equity issue", stressing that people living in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire "deserve the same chance at NHS-funded fertility care as those elsewhere in the country".

Last month, Liberal Democrat MP for Henley and Thame, Freddie van Mierlo, tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling out the BOB ICB for its fertility policy and said "disparities create a postcode lottery in access to fertility treatment".