UK government advises "fertility tourists" to stay home -- but leaves no alternative for many

Over-regulation of fertility treatment in the UK has created a boom in "fertility tourism" in other countries, as UK couples are driven abroad to seek fertility treatment that is not available at home.  Now the HFEA, which regulates IVF in the United Kingdom, is wagging a stern finger at couples considering an "IVF holiday":  you'd better "think twice and consider the risks and implications of going abroad for treatment."

If you live in the UK and you're considering IVF for gender selection, leaving the country is your only option, because sex selection is banned in the UK.  But couples are fleeing England to undergo IVF in other countries -- even though IVF would be free of cost at home under the government health care system -- for many other reasons as well.  In the UK, you may face a long waiting list for IVF; and often delaying IVF is tantamount to denying it altogether, because one of the most important factors in IVF success is the mother's age.   Recent regulations denying anonymity to sperm donors has seen the availability of donor sperm dry up over the past year. Rules on who is eligible for IVF deny many couples.  Strict, blanket limits on IVF procedures may reduce the chance that IVF will be successful.  And the famous "IVF postcode lottery" in the UK means that treatment is wildly unequal from one county to the next.

Currently, a saga caused by the arbitrary rules imposed for the destruction of frozen embryos  is being played out in the British press.  The HFEA appears to be insisting on  destroying frozen embryos -- against the wishes of the parents -- because the 5 years permitted to store frozen embryos has elapsed before the couple could find a surrogate mother.  The mother, Michelle Hickman,  underwent an emergency hysterectomy after the birth of their first child, and cannot carry a baby.  The couple hopes to be allowed to move their embryos to another country, where they will be safe from the "embryo death row" in the UK.  Michelle joins other families, like the Mastersons and the Whitakers, forced into two battles: one battle to overcome a medical issue, and another to convince their own government to permit needed treatment.

Yet, the HFEA urges couples to stay in the UK where "care and treatment is of the highest standard," and not to travel to another country where they might be able to make their own decisions regarding treatment, and retain control of their own embryos and gametes.  The HFEA has taken away choices from its own citizens at home, until little other option remains to them but to risk seeking treatment abroad.