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Column Infertility is not a choice – but treatment for it should be

Ireland’s public health system offers no treatment for infertility – so if you haven’t got money you can forget it, writes Fiona McPhillips.

INFERTILITY IS A medical condition. If you have not conceived after 12 months of trying, you can go to your GP, get a referral to a specialist, have some tests done and get a diagnosis such as low sperm count, blocked tubes or polycystic ovaries. At this stage, your specialist can recommend fertility treatment for your medical condition but only if you stump up your own cold, hard-earned cash. Our public health service can bring you as far as a diagnosis of infertility but it will not treat it. If you don’t have the money, your diagnosis is simply the end of the line.

Many are surprised to hear that there is no fertility treatment available on the public health system and none of it is covered by private health insurers either. Ireland, along with Russia, offers the worst access to fertility treatment in Europe.

If that wasn’t bad enough, there is no regulation in Ireland for the provision of assisted reproductive services. The Irish Medical Council has issued guidelines but there is no legal framework within which fertility clinics can operate. A Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction produced a report in 2005, which made 40 recommendations but successive governments have preferred to ignore the situation than legislate for it.

IVF treatment

It’s not that officials think that providing access to treatment is a bad idea. A spokesperson at the Department of Health and Children told me in 2008 that they were planning on making one cycle of IVF available to medical card holders and that this would be implemented in due course along with the recommendations of the Commission. In 2010, Mary Harney, the then Minister for Health, said that she was “considering policy options in this regard”.

As fertility treatment can be claimed as a medical expense for tax purposes and, as fertility drugs are available on the GMS and DPS schemes, the State clearly views infertility as a medical condition. However, when it comes to providing treatment on the HSE, patients are a soft target because infertility is often a private matter and it has had a long history of shame and stigma in this country. You won’t see tens of thousands of people marching in the street against this but, with more than one in six couples experiencing infertility, there are tens of thousands of people being discriminated against.

There are those who oppose public funding of fertility treatment on the grounds that they would rather their tax money be spent elsewhere. Well, putting aside the argument that infertility patients are taxpayers too, health services don’t work like that. You don’t get to vote on whether Mary down the road gets her ingrown toenail fixed or Uncle Brian gets his vasectomy. A health service in a civilised society provides medical treatment to those that need it, regardless of political popularity. And anyway, a Dutch study has found that, when the State pays the cost of IVF and only allows a single embryo to be transferred each time (thus ruling out the risk and cost to the State of a multiple pregnancy), there is a huge net saving to taxpayers. Pregnancy rates are higher when two embryos are transferred so it is understandable that private patients will take the chance of twins if it is their only shot at pregnancy.

Painful struggle

Infertility is a very difficult and painful struggle. A 2004 study found that 40 per cent of infertile women suffered from depression, while 87 per cent had anxiety. Luckily, the HSE will pick up the tab for these side-effects of infertility but this doesn’t make the problem go away.

In the three years it took to have my daughter, I endured two cycles of IVF, three IUIs (intrauterine inseminations), several rounds of fertility drugs and six miscarriages. That was the easy part – the treatments gave me the luxury of hope and I knew that I would carry on until I was successful. But what if I hadn’t even been allowed to try? How could I have begun to deal with the pain, the grief, the loneliness of infertility?

That’s why I set up the infertility charity, Pomegranate, with my friend, Joanna Donnelly. We had both been through infertility, had come out the other side and wanted to give something back to those who might never even have the chance to try for a baby. Pomegranate raises money to pay for IVF for those who could not otherwise afford it. Our selection policy is simple  - any couple who approaches us, has two medical cards and has been recommended for IVF but has not tried it is put forward for a lottery, and whenever we raise enough money for an IVF cycle, we have a lottery.

But the fact remains that Pomegranate shouldn’t have to exist. Infertility is not a choice but treatment should be.

Fiona McPhillips gave birth to her son in 2003, but she then faced three rounds of Clomid, three IUIs, two IVFs and suffered six miscarriages before giving birth to her daughter in 2008. She went on to have another son in 2009. She writes a blog called makingbabies.ie. She also runs the infertility charity Pomegranate. She has also written a book, Trying To Conceive: The Irish Couple’s Guide, which is published by Liberties Press.

Read: Frozen – over fresh – embryos may improve IVF success>

Read: Demand for public IVF treatment doubled in recession>

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41 Comments
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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:22 PM

    You have to be joking about meeting house square.. The place is full of junkies roaring and shouting at each other..

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    Mute Mike Howard
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:47 PM

    Yes indeed, few seats and what is there is deadly on ur ass – wind whipping through – definitely misplaced on here – replace it with park in Merrion Square.

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    Mute The Green Monkey
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 3:13 PM

    Blessington Street Basin is full of junkies too so they have taken over at least 20% of the 10 most peaceful places…….

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    Mute Meehawwl O'Buachailla
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 8:50 PM

    Junkies have to do their christmas shopping too ya’ know.

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    Mute George Hogan
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:16 PM

    We really are spoiled in Dublin with all our beautiful parks!

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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:43 PM

    We are indeed George but an antisocial element are slowly eroding our parks and amenities.

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    Mute Al
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:52 PM

    Ive never experienced any anti social behaviour in Central Dublin parks or squares.

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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:54 PM

    I have and I have seen the caretakers cleaning up in the mornings.

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    Mute Rob Morgan
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 2:24 PM

    If you’ve never experienced it, you’re probably causing it.

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    Mute Al
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    Nov 23rd 2015, 3:30 AM

    Ok Rob, back in the hole….

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    Mute Garry O'Leary
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:28 PM

    Neither CHQ or the Fruit Market open on a Sunday. 5 minutes on google searching for the opening hours of these places would have told the author they don’t open on Sunday’s. Yet more shoddy and lazy journalism from the Journal!!!

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    Mute Free comment ratings
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:43 PM

    Closed on Sunday? So no point going at any time then. Is that your point? I am not sure.

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    Mute Kershie
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:45 PM

    @Garry, the article does not mention Sunday once. You are allowed try and relax other days of the week.

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    Mute Sandra Turner
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:51 PM

    #peaceful Sunday is the hashtag accompanying the headline

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    Mute Free comment ratings
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 1:03 PM

    So let’s have one.

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    Mute Kershie
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 1:47 PM

    so it is – sorry.

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    Mute Rob Morgan
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 2:25 PM

    CHQ is a glorified food court. That said, before noon and after 14.30h it is peaceful.

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    Mute ted hagan
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 9:50 PM

    Sounds like Garry would find it hard to relax wherever he went.

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    Mute Anne Marie Devlin
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:23 PM

    what about the rooftop garden of the Chester Beatty? Zen like atmosphere

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    Mute flint
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:15 PM

    Yea… The road out of it

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    Mute Al
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:53 PM

    Someone sounds Bitter.

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    Mute flint
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 2:46 PM

    You couldn’t be more wrong.. I took the road out Sure :)

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    Mute Anton Phelan
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 7:04 PM

    Good

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    Mute Meehawwl O'Buachailla
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 7:05 PM

    You sound like a culchie Alan Partridge.

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    Mute Cupid Stunt
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:41 PM

    How about the office for political and banking accountability, you can hear a pin drop in there.

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    Mute Martin Gallagher
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:59 PM

    Just to add to the list, The Blessinton St. Basin, the Lutyens gardens in Islandbridge and of course the dear old Phoenix park.

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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 12:37 PM

    11. Cork city.

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    Mute John S
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 2:33 PM

    Hmmm……I am not sure which part of the “10 places to get some peace and quiet in Dublin city” you struggled most with?

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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 3:04 PM

    If ya want P&Q anywhere, anytime- go to cork city. It’s pretty dead there

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    Mute Anton Phelan
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 7:06 PM

    You can walk around it in 5 minutes

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    Mute Nick Caffrey
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 10:28 PM

    It ain’t dead. And the people are still polite. Not walking around with their heads up their asses like in Dublin.

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    Mute Paul Geraghty
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 2:38 PM

    Ah yeah iveagh gardens great spot and remember being brought to the basin as a kid

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    Mute Phillip O'Brien
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 3:32 PM

    The Journal recommending to go into a church…wonders will never cease.

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 8:59 PM

    Always like a church as it has art, artitecture and a nice quietness to it, peaceful.

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 9:01 PM

    The Dublin Fruit Market, is that not the Dail as there are plenty of banannas there?

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    Mute David Wall
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    Nov 22nd 2015, 6:20 PM

    Just about any pub shortly after opening hours

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