August 13th 2023.
Katherine and Laura Gonzales-Moore, a couple living in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, have had two miscarriages and are struggling to access IVF on the NHS. Laura, 35, has called for more awareness around the struggles of LGBTQ+ couples trying to access fertility treatment in the UK.
Katherine and Laura began their journey to parenthood two years ago when they were living in the US, where Katherine, 42, is from. Laura told The Agency: “We did start trying for a baby two years ago. We had some treatment and, initially, we were successful getting pregnant. Unfortunately, I miscarried at about eight or nine weeks. And then more recently, last October, we got pregnant again. But that ended in a chemical pregnancy.”
The couple moved to Lancashire to be close to Laura’s family and started exploring options to continue their fertility treatment through the NHS. “In pregnancy and parenthood terms, they already class us as geriatric,” Laura said. “So at this point, as we’re two years down the line, we don’t really have a lot of time to waste.”
They were hopeful of receiving treatment following the release of the government’s Women’s Health Strategy in summer last year, which aims to allow female same-sex couples to access NHS-funded fertility services in a more equitable way. Previously, same-sex couples and single women had to pay for several rounds of their own treatment to ‘prove’ medical infertility before they were eligible on the NHS, but heterosexual couples only had to try to conceive naturally for two years to qualify for IVF.
In 2021, Megan and Whitney Bacon-Evans, known as ‘Wegan’, launched a landmark legal case after accusing their local fertility clinic of discrimination. The married couple from Windsor, both in their thirties, had to pay tens of thousands of pounds to get IVF treatment on the NHS. Last month, they dropped their case after Frimley’s integrated care board said it recognised the need to update its policy in light of the Women’s Health Strategy. They called it a ‘fertility equality victory.’
Despite this, Laura and Katherine were shocked to find that the LGBTQ+ equality change has only so far taken effect in a handful of locations, and the Women’s Health Strategy is considered a ‘10-year ambition’. Laura said: “We effectively felt like we were starting from the beginning again, and we paid privately to kind of fast track ourselves back into an NHS referral. But there seemed to be a lot of confusion… everyone kind of seemed a little bit unsure of what the rules were, and there wasn’t a lot of direction. We kept moving forward, only to be told we would still have to self-fund six rounds of insemination before even being eligible for IVF treatment on the NHS.”
The couple were further discouraged to learn that, even though Laura is British and would be the patient, their eligibility for treatment would be eliminated because Katherine is not yet a British citizen. Laura added: “And even though I am British and I would be the patient, because my wife isn’t British yet that would eliminate us for any kind of treatment – even though we pay thousands for her NHS surcharge on a spousal visa and we both work full-time, and pay our taxes.”
Katherine and Laura Gonzales-Moore have been on a difficult journey to parenthood since they moved to the UK. The couple, who live in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, have had two miscarriages and can’t get IVF on the NHS.
Katherine, 42, is from the US, where she and Laura, 35, met two years ago. “We did start trying for a baby two years ago,” Laura told The Agency. “We had some treatment and, initially, we were successful getting pregnant. Unfortunately, I miscarried at about eight or nine weeks. And then more recently, last October, we got pregnant again. But that ended in a chemical pregnancy.”
Laura continued: “It was very hard, because we were actually quite fortunate that I got pregnant on the second go. So we had that quick success, and obviously the excitement and everything that came with it, and it was taken away from us relatively quickly. We were only eight weeks in and it was over, which was heartbreaking. And then of course it’s not like, next month we try again – there’s so much that goes into it like waiting for hormones to drop, and getting bloodwork done, and timing – there are so many factors that come into it. We just ran out of time.”
The couple moved to Lancashire to be close to Laura’s family in the UK, and began exploring options to continue fertility treatment through the NHS. “In pregnancy and parenthood terms, they already class us as geriatric,” Laura said. “So at this point, as we’re two years down the line, we don’t really have a lot of time to waste.”
When the government released its Women’s Health Strategy in summer last year, the couple were hopeful of receiving treatment. The policy aims to allow female same-sex couples to access NHS-funded fertility services in an equitable way. Heterosexual couples, however, have to try to conceive naturally for two years to qualify for IVF.
The policy led to a landmark legal case in 2021, when a same-sex couple accused their local fertility clinic of discrimination. Megan and Whitney Bacon-Evans, known as ‘Wegan’, said they had to pay tens of thousands of pounds to get IVF treatment on the NHS. The married couple from Windsor, both in their thirties, dropped their case last month after their local fertility clinic recognised the need to update its policy in light of the Women’s Health Strategy. They called it a ‘fertility equality victory’.
The parliamentary under-secretary of state for mental health and women’s health Strategy, Maria Caulfield, said in May that she expected the change to take effect during 2023. However, Laura and Katherine were surprised to find the LGBTQ+ equality change had only taken effect in a handful of locations, with the Women’s Health Strategy labelled a ‘10-year ambition’.
“We effectively felt like we were starting from the beginning again, and we paid privately to kind of fast track ourselves back into an NHS referral,” said Laura. “But there seemed to be a lot of confusion… everyone kind of seemed a little bit unsure of what the rules were, and there wasn’t a lot of direction. We kept moving forward, only to be told we would still have to self-fund six rounds of insemination before even being eligible for IVF treatment on the NHS.”
The couple were also shocked to discover that, despite their full-time jobs and paying thousands in NHS surcharge on a spousal visa, they were still not eligible for treatment as Laura is not yet a British citizen.
“And even though I am British and I would be the patient, because my wife isn’t British yet that would eliminate us for any kind of treatment – even though we pay thousands for her NHS surcharge on a spousal visa and we both work full-time, and pay our taxes,” said Laura.
It is clear that LGBTQ+ couples in the UK face a number of challenges when trying to access fertility treatment. Although Megan and Whitney’s legal case was won, there is still a long way to go before couples like Katherine and Laura are able to access the same rights as heterosexual couples.
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