Struggling NHS trusts are axing or rationing IVF funding for obese and underweight women.
Most have already banned any with a Body Mass Index outside the ‘healthy’ range from having the fertility treatment.
And in what has been blasted as a postcode lottery, more Clinical Commissioning Groups – health boards organising local NHS services – plan to either cut or ration IVF based on size.
Among them is Wirral CCG which told us from April both the woman AND man must have a BMI from 19 to 29.9.
Women aged under 40 there will also only be offered two IVF cycles, rather than the three recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
And couples must have been trying to conceive naturally for THREE years rather than the two advised by NICE.
Our research found CCGs in North Cheshire, Vale Royal and South Cheshire are considering similar rules.
A recent study by charity Fertility Fairness found just 31 CCGs in England offer the full three cycles, with 49 paying for two, 124 funding just one and five none at all.
Full story in The Mirror, 25th March 2017