Am I eligible for NHS-funded IVF?

There is national guidance from NICE recommending up to three full cycles for women under 40. There is also the reality that funding decisions are made by local integrated care boards, and very few of them follow that guidance in full. This is why two people with identical medical histories can get three cycles and none depending on where they live.

The criteria that appear in almost every policy

• No existing living child for either partner, including children from previous relationships
• A defined period of trying to conceive — commonly two years of unprotected sex, or twelve rounds of donor insemination
• An upper age limit for the woman, usually 40, sometimes 42
• A BMI range, most often 19–30
• Both partners non-smoking, sometimes for a stated number of months
• Being registered with a GP in that area

How to find your actual policy

1. Find the name of your integrated care board — your GP surgery will tell you, or search your postcode.
2. Search for that board's name plus 'fertility policy' or 'assisted conception policy'. It will be a PDF.
3. Read the eligibility table, the number of funded cycles, and the section on what counts as a cycle.
4. Note the referral route: some areas require a specific fertility clinic pathway rather than a direct referral.

Check what your area counts as one 'cycle'. A full cycle should include the transfer of any frozen embryos from that stimulation. Some policies fund only the fresh transfer, which materially changes the value of the funding.

If you don't qualify

Being turned down for funding is not the same as being turned down for treatment. The common routes from there are self-funding at a private clinic, moving to an area with a more generous policy and re-registering with a GP there, or appealing on the basis of an exceptional clinical circumstance — which is possible but rarely successful without new medical evidence.

If the block is BMI or smoking, it is worth asking your GP how long the policy requires you to have maintained the change. Some policies want a single reading in range; others want six months of evidence. Knowing which one you are dealing with turns a vague obstacle into a plan.

The clock nobody mentions

Referral, testing, waiting list and treatment can add up to a year or more, and eligibility is usually assessed at the point of treatment rather than referral. If you are close to the upper age limit in your policy, say so explicitly at your first appointment and ask for it to be recorded — it can affect how quickly your case moves.