Row over IVF postcode 'lottery'

The Welsh Assembly is being urged to end a postcode lottery over infertility treatment which means childless couples are being denied the chance of having a family.

Free IVF treatment depends on where you live. In north Wales the waiting list is closed with no prospect of it reopening.

Treatment varies from drug therapy to IVF

Couples there are now threatening to sue when European Human Rights legislation becomes British law next month.

One in six couples will be infertile and unable to conceive naturally.

Only medical intervention can help them and treatments range from simple drug therapy to IVF.

But that help depends on where you live. In north Wales there is no NHS fertility treatment. In Dyfed-Powys help is given in "exceptional circumstances".

Further down in south Wales Bro Taf and Iechyd Morgannwg health authorities offer two free treatments where as in neighbouring Gwent only one is given.

Christine Pulford has spent thousands on fertility treatment

Thousands of childless couples in Wales can wait up to three years for treatment for infertility. Around a third of them will be successful on their third cycle of treatment.

But once the NHS money runs out they will be forced to go private.

'People's hope'

Christine Pulford from Old Colwyn in north Wales, has spent thousands in her quest to conceive. Her health authority's decision not to re-open their NHS waiting list is a "terrible blow".

"I believe what they have done is taken away people's hope," she said.

"And that's all they've got. When they're diagnosed infertile, hope is the only thing they have."

Campaigning groups have said childless couples could sue their health authority once European policy is enshrined in British law.

"The convention provides for a right for respect for family life, the right to marry and found a family and the policy decision by the health authority may contravene those specific articles of the convention," explained lawyer Ceri Breeze.

There are now calls for the Welsh Assembly to centralise funding to ensure everyone is given an equal chance of conceiving.