Support for Robin and Jen and other queer couples like them is particularly fraught. In July last year, the Women’s Health Strategy announced plans to remove the additional barriers restricting same-sex couples’ access to NHS-funded IVF. As things stand, same-sex couples must pay for either six or 12 rounds of artificial insemination, with at least six taking place in a clinical setting, before they can be considered for NHS IVF. This means the financial burden of all testing, sperm and storage, as well as several rounds of intrauterine insemination, falls to the couple. These changes were expected to happen in April 2023 but have yet to be implemented. And so several campaigners, including Stonewall with its #IVFforAll campaign, have increased their pressure on the government. While these restrictions mostly directly impact same-sex and queer couples who can carry, access to IVF is also restricted for other family structures, including single women and women who have a child from a previous relationship. Guidance for trans men and other queer people with wombs is unclear, though some trans men have been able to freeze their eggs at NHS-funded fertility clinics.
