Nursery nurse planning to sue her local primary care trust for age discrimination
4 June 2012
Andrea Heywood is a 24–year-old nurse, who is infertile because she suffered severe scarring to her fallopian tubes when her appendix burst at the age of six. She is trying to get pregnant, since she was married three years ago. She was told, she could get pregnant through IVF, but they have been turned down three times for a free round of fertility treatment worth £5,000. They were told they must wait until she is 30 before she gets free IVF treatment. Now they want to sue the local primary care trust for age discrimination, because they say she is too young and therefore denied IVF treatment.
I think that she is being discriminated because the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines state women should be offered three cycles of IVF from the age of 23 to 39 if it is clinically established they are unable to conceive by natural means. It is strange that the local funding guidelines in Portsmouth depart from NICE and therefore they are not eligible for free treatment. She is a young and healthy woman and has the optimum age to have a child. It is also a logical step to want a child when you are married and that has nothing to do with age.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/too-young-to-have-ivf-24yearold-andrea-heywood-fights-for-her-right-to-fertility-treatment-7814790.html
What are the regulations about these kinds of problems in the Netherlands? I think this woman should receive the treatment she needs in order to become pregnant. Why should she wait till she is 30? This rule was made for women who are theoratically able to have a baby in a natural way.
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