British Institute advises fertility treatment for lesbians

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LONDON — The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK now recommends that gay couples and women over the age of 40 be given fertility treatment despite concerns about how the state provision will be paid for, the Daily Telegraph, a London-based newspaper, reported.

The Institute recommends that lesbian couples be offered six cycles of artificial insemination and, if that fails, in-vitro fertilization, the Telegraph reported. Since the Institute does not have to consider budgets when setting its guidelines, opponents say hospitals will be unable to afford the extra treatment without making drastic cuts to other services. The Institute is updating a 2004 directive and says it’s taking “medical advances and changes in society” into account in its recommendation, the Telegraph said.

Just more than 1,000 cycles of insemination were performed on women in same-sex relationships there in 2010, resulting in 152 babies. The number of cylces of IVF for this group rose from less than 100 in 2009 to 561 in 2010, resulting in 215 babies, the report said. Most couples paid for treatment privately, the Telegraph reported.